Love
The Tsze K‘in
Translated by James Legge (1876) · From The She King (1876), Part I, Book VII
You student, with the collar blue,
Long pines my heart with anxious pain.
Although I do not go to you,
Why from all word do you refrain ?
O you, with girdle strings of blue,
My thoughts to you for ever roam !
Although I do not go to you,
Yet why to me should you not come?
How reckless you, how light and wild,
There by the tower upon the wall !
One day, from sight of you exiled,
As long as three long months I call.
Codex Note
A lady mourns the indifference and absence of her student lover.
Cite this poem
MLA
Shi Jing (The Book of Songs). “The Tsze K‘in.” Translated by James Legge. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shi-jing/87/.
Chicago
Shi Jing (The Book of Songs). “The Tsze K‘in.” Translated by James Legge. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shi-jing/87/.
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