The Shin Kung

Ho! ministers of husbandry,
Your duties reverent care demand.
The king has given you perfect rules ;—
See that those rules ye understand.

Ho! ye who aid the ministers,
The last month of our spring is here.
’Tis yours the new-sown fields to tend,
And manage those in their third year.
How fair each wheat and barley field,
That soon their waving crops shall yield !

In them the bright and glorious God
Will grant to us a plenteous year ;
Give orders that, with spud and hoe
Provided well, your men appear.
Anon the stalks that rustling stand
Shall fall before the reaper’s hand.