PIH FUNG

1 Cold blows the north wind;

Thick falls the snow.

Ye who love and regard me,

Let us join hands and go together.

Is it a time for delay?

The urgency is extreme!

2 The north wind whistles;

The snow falls and drifts about.

Ye who love and regard me,

Let us join hands, and go away for ever.

Is it a time for delay?

The urgency is extreme!

Ode 16. Metaphorical. SOME ONE OF WEI PRESSES HIS FRIENDS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY WITH HIM AT ONCE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE PREVAILING OPPRESSION AND MISERY. St. 1. 雱 is the 'app. of much snow'. The first two lines in all the stanzas are a metaphorical description of the miserable condition of the State. Choo explains 惠 by 愛, 'to love'. K'ang-shing makes it= 'ye who are of a loving nature'. Yen Ts'an well explains the line by 以恩惠相與者, 'ye who have kindly intercourse with me'. We might translate the whole by 'O friends'. 攜 is 'to lead by the hand'; 攜手 here, 'to take one another by the hand'. The 5^th line is the difficulty of the ode. The其 is both graphic and interrogative, which decides against the explanation of K'ang-shing:—'The forbearing and good all think things have come to a climax, and that they should leave. We also ought to go.' The Urh-ya quotes the line as 其虛其徐, and so 邪 is here read. How it comes to have that pronunciation and meaning—'slow','leisurely'—is a point on which pages are written.But 邪 being taken in this sense, we are led to give a cognate one to 虛, and Choo, after one of the Ch'ings,explains it by 寬貌, 'forbearing-like'. I have no doubt the translation gives the idea of the line correctly.Lacharme has 'nullus morce datur locus'. 旣=已, in last ode. 亟=急, expressing 'extreme urgency'. 只且 (tseu) go together, particles untranslateable.

St. 2. 喈,—see i. II. 1. It here represents the rapid whistling of the wind, which is the reason, probably,that it is made to rhyme with 霏 and 歸. 霏 denotes 'the app. of the falling snow, scattered about'. Choo takes歸 here in the sense of 大歸, 'going away for good'.

3 Nothing red is seen but foxes,

Nothing black but crows.

Ye who love and regard me,

Let us join hands, and go together in our carriages.

Is it a time for delay?

The urgency is extreme!