GAINST LISTENING TO SLANDERERS

Like the blueflies buzzing round,
And on the fences lighting,
Are the sons of slander found,
Who never cease their biting.
O thou happy, courteous king,
To the winds their slanders fling.

Buzzing round the blueflies hear,
About the jujubes flocking!
So the slanderers appear,
Whose calumnies are shocking.
By no law or order bound,
All the kingdom they confound.

How they buzz, those odious flies,
Upon the hazels clust'ring!
And as odious are the lies
Of those slanderers blust'ring.
Hatred stirred between us two
Shows the evil they can do.

BOOK VIII

_The Decade of Too Jin Sze_

IN PRAISE OF BY-GONE SIMPLICITY

In the old capital they stood,
With yellow fox-furs plain,
Their manners all correct and good,
Speech free from vulgar stain.
Could we go back to Chow's old days,
All would look up to them with praise.

In the old capital they wore
_T[']ae_ hats and black caps small;
And ladies, who famed surnames bore,
Their own thick hair let fall.
Such simple ways are seen no more,
And the changed manners I deplore.

Ear-rings, made of plainest gold,
In the old days were worn.
Each lady of a noble line
A Yin or Keih seemed born.
Such officers and ladies now
I see not and my sorrows grow.

With graceful sweep their girdles fell,
Then in the days of old.
The ladies' side-hair, with a swell,
Like scorpion's tail, rose bold.
Such, if I saw them in these days,
I'd follow with admiring gaze.

So hung their girdles, not for show;--
To their own length 'twas due.
'Twas not by art their hair curled so;--
By nature so it grew.
I seek such manners now in vain,
And pine for them with longing pain.

[NOTE.--Yin and Keih were clan names of great families, the
ladies of which would be leaders of fashion in the capital.]

A WIFE BEMOANS HER HUSBAND'S ABSENCE

So full am I of anxious thought,
Though all the morn king-grass I've sought,
To fill my arms I fail.
Like wisp all-tangled is my hair!
To wash it let me home repair.
My lord soon may I hail!

Though 'mong the indigo I've wrought
The morning long; through anxious thought,
My skirt's filled but in part.
Within five days he was