遵彼汝墳，伐其條枚，未見君子，惄如調飢。

遵彼汝墳，伐其條肄，既見君子，不我遐棄。

魴魚赬尾，王室如燬，雖則如燬，父母孔邇。

Along those raised banks of the Ru, I cut down the branches and slender stems.  While I could not see my lord, I felt as it were pangs of great hunger.

Along those raised banks of the Ru, I cut down the branches and fresh twigs.  I have seen my lord; He has not cast me away.

The bream is showing its tail all red; The royal House is like a blazing fire.  Though it be like a blazing fire, Your parents are very near.  

Ode 10. Mainly narrative. The affection of the wives of the Joo, and their solicitude about their husbands' honour. 

the Royal House, in the last stanza, like a blazing fire, is supposed to be that of Shang, under the tyranny of Chow. The piece, therefore, belongs to the closing time of that dyn., when Wan was consolidating his power and influence. the effects of his very different rule were felt in the country about the Joo, and animated the wife of a soldier (or officer), rejoicing in the return of her husband from a toilsome service, to express her feelings and sentiments, as in these stanzas.

St.1. L.1. The Joo is not mentioned in the Shoo. It rises in the hill of T'ëen-seih (天息), in Joo Chow, Honan, flows east through that province, and falls into the Hwae, in the dep. of Ying-chow (潁州), Ngan-hwui. 墳 = 大防, 'great dykes,' meaning the banks of the river, raised, or rising high, to keep the water in its channel. Some give the phrase 汝墳 a more definite meaning, and the site of an old city, which was so called, is pointed out, 50 le to the north east of the dis. city of Shëh (葉), dep. Nan-yang. 

L.2. 條 = 枝, 'branches.' 枚 = 'small trees.' The speaker must be supposed to have been cutting these branches and trees for firewood. L.3. 君子, -- the speaker's 'princely man,' = 'her husband.' She longed to see him, but she did not do so ye (未).

L.4. 惄 (ni) in the Urh-ya is explained both by 思, 'to think,' and by 飢, 'to be hungry.' Maou and Choo unite those definitions, and make it = 飢意, 'hungry thoughts.' 調 (chow), with Maou, = 朝, 'the morning.' so that the meaning is ' I feel like one hungry for the morning meal.' Much better it is to adopt, with Choo, the reading of 輖, meaning 重, 'intense,' 'long-continued.'

St.2. L.2.肄 = 'fresh shoots;' a year had gone by. The branches lopped in the past par. had grown again, or fresh shoots in their place. The husband had long been away; but at length he has returned. So the 既 in 1.3. intimates.

L.4.遐 = 遠 = 'distant,' 'far.' 遐棄, together, = 'to abandon.' 布我遐棄 = 不遠棄我, 'has not abandoned me'; but whether this expression be = 'my husband is not dead,' as K'ang-shing and many others take it; or = 'he comes back, with all the affection of our original covenant,' it would be hard to say. On the latter view the stanza is allusive, and the husband has not yet returned. the fresh shoots awaken the speaker's emotion, and she exclaims, 'Another day, when I shall have seen my husband, perhaps he will not cast me off!' As Yen Ts'an puts it, 他日已見君子,庶幾不遠棄我也.

St. 3. This stanza is metaphorical. L.1. The fang is the bream called also 魾 and 鳊. 赬 = 赤, 'red.' The tail of the bream, we are told, is not naturally red like that of the carp; the redness in the text must be produced by its tossing about in shallow water. So was the speaker's husband toiled and worn out in distant service. The other 3 lines are understood to be exhortation to the husband to do his duty to the royal House of Yin, notwithstanding the oppressiveness of Chow its Head. 燬 = 火 'a fire,' or to blaze as a fire. K'ang-shing and Ying-tah understand by 'parents' the husbands' parents, so that his wife's idea is that he should do his duty at all risks, and not disgrace his parents whom he should think of as always near him. Choo considers that the phrase is a designation of king Wan, as the 'parent' of the people; and the wife exhorts her husband ever to think of him, serving the House of Yin loyally, and to copy his example. It may be the best way to accept the view of the old interpreters. 孔= 甚, 'very.'

The rhymes are -- in St.1, 枚, 飢; in 2, 肄, 棄; in 3, 尾, 燬*, 邇.