Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/475

 they settle on the bushy oaks. The king's affairs must not be slackly discharged, And (so) we cannot plant our millets;—What will our parents have to rely on? O thou distant and azure Heaven ! When shall we be in our places again?

It is supposed that the husband whose death is bewailed in this piece had died in one of the military expeditions of which duke Hsien ( 676–651) was fond. It may have been so, but there is nothing in the piece to make us think of duke Hsien. I give it a place in the volume, not because of the religious sentiment in it, but because of the absence of that sentiment, where we might expect it. The lady shows the grand virtue of a Chinese widow, in that she will never marry again. And her grief would not be assuaged. The days would all seem long summer days, and the nights all long winter nights; so that a hundred long years would seem to drag their slow course. But there is not any hope expressed of a re-union with her husband in another state. The 'abode' and the 'chamber' of which she speaks are to be understood of his grave; and her thoughts do not appear to go beyond it.

The dolichos grows, covering the thorn trees; The convolvulus spreads all over the waste. The