于以采蘩、于沼于沚。 于以用之、公侯之事。

于以采蘩、于澗之中。 于以用之、公侯之宮。

被之僮僮、夙夜在公。 被之祁祁、薄言還歸。

She gathers the white southernwood, By the ponds, on the islets.  She employs it, In the business of our prince.

She gathers the white southernwood, Along the streams in the valleys.  She employs it, In the temple of our prince.

With head-dress reverently rising aloft, Early, while yet it is night, she is in the prince's temple; In her dead-dress, slowly retiring, She returns to her own apartments.

Ode 2. Narrative The industry and reverence of a prince's wife, assisting him in sacrificing.

Here we must suppose the ladies of a harem, in one of the States of the South, admiring and praising the way in which their mistress discharged her duties; --all, of course, add the commentators, through the transforming influence of the court of Chow. There is a view that it is not sacrificing that is spoken of, which I will point out in a concluding note.

St.1. L.1 Maou says 于 = 於, which it is in the next line; but 于以 cannot be so construed. K'ang-shing and Ying-tah, seeing this, made 于 = 往, which would do in the 1st line, but not in the 3d. Our best plan is to take 于 and 以 together as a compound particle, untranslateable; so Wang T'aou (于以猶薄言, 皆發聲語助也). 蘩 is, no doubt, a kind of artimisia, and is defined as 白蒿, after which Medhust terms it 'white southernwood.' Its leaf is coarser than that of the other haou, with white hairs on it. It does not grow high, like other varieties, but thick. The fan was used both in sacrifices, and in feeding silkworms.

L.2. 沼 is a pool or natural pond, of irregular crooked shape, distinguished from 池, which is round. The general name for island is 洲; a small chow is called 渚; and a small choo, 沚. The fan is not a water plant, so that we must take 于 as = 'by,' 'on.'

L.4. By 事 we must understand the business of sacrifice, the business, by way of eminence. The sacrifice intended, moreover, must be celebrated in the ancestral temple, within the precincts of the palace, as the lady could take no part in sacrifices outside those. 公侯, -- together, as in i. VII. The lady's husband might be a 公 or a 侯.

St.2. 澗 is 'a stream in a valley (山夾水).' Here, however, the idea is more that of a valley with a stream in it. 宮 = 廟, 'the ancestral temple;' so, often in the Ch'un Ts'ëw.

St.3. 被 is described as 首飾, 'an ornament for the head,' and as being made of hair plaited. It was probably the same with what is elsewhere called the 副, though Ying-tah identifies it with the 次. 僮僮 (written also without the 人 at the side) is defined by Maou, as = 竦敬, 'standing up high and reverently.' Then 祁祁, in 1.3, is said to be 舒遲貌, ' the appearance of leisurely ease.' Both the predicates belong in the construction to the head-dress; in reality to the lady. -- 夙夜 is not 'from morning till night,' as Lacharme takes it, but early in the morning, while it was yet dark (夙夜, 非自夙至夜, 乃夜之夙也, 昧晦未分為夜, 天光向辰為夙). The 公 in L3 = 公所, 'the prince's palace' the temple of last st. It must not be taken, says Choo, of 'the prince's private chamber.'

The rhymes are --in st. 1, 沚, 事; in 2, 中,宮; in 3, 僮, 公; 祁, 歸.

Note on the interpretation. 

The interpretation of the ode above given is satisfactory enough. Choo mentions another, however, which would also suit the exigencies of the case pretty well; --that it refers to the duties of the prince's wife in his silk-worm establishment. The fan would be useful in this, as a decoction from its leaves, sprinkled on the silkworms' eggs, is said to facilitate their hatching. The imperial editors fully exhibit this view, but do not give it the preference. Le Kwang-te (李光地; of the pres. dyn.) adopts it in his 詩所, and takes no notice of the other.