Perilous paths, alas, are hateful to see;
Shallow customs seep in, fostering rivalry.
Advancement favors profit, nothing more;
To chase the times, flattery wins o'er.
How can my Way find passage clear?
Slanderers distort the right, drawing near.
My life runs counter to the age's tide;
The gift I bear is a rigid, unbending pride.
I strive for the ancients, scorn floating prose;
Discuss the classics, reject what falsehood grows.
To force myself to please the current affair
Is to violate nature, a burden hard to bear.
My wooden tongue won't curl in soft deceit;
A withered tree casts but a faint retreat.
I skirt the winds and waves, upstream and down;
Each step forward or back may touch a trap in town.
Eight years freed from the flow of official grind,
Grace bestowed, a county's order to bind.
Transferred to miasmic ridges, far and low,
From parents' warmth and cool, I'm forced to go.
The southern wilds are steeped in sweltering heat;
At noon, the mountain haze still shrouds the street.
Thus I recall the ancient magistrates of yore,
Whose joy or woe decided the people's fate and more.
Shi Yuan governed the capital with care;
Ji An resigned, citing illness, his burden to bear.
I long to emulate such men, time and again,
But to leave or stay is no light choice for men.
Though but a leader of ten thousand souls,
One can observe governance and its goals.
Advancement climbs by gradual steps, slow and sure;
Hardship and poverty are fates we must endure.
Thus I diligently study the clerkly art,
To drive the people toward a unified part.
Clarify and dredge the source, make pure the stream;
Tear out and block the crooked path, a righteous dream.
The clerks' hands cannot indulge in wanton play;
The wicked and mighty dare not hold sway.
Where instruction and influence fail to take hold,
The whip's lash, alas, must sometimes be told.
The ingrained cunning rarely wishes to mend;
The honest folk find cause to rejoice in the end.
This barely comforts a hundred-mile heart;
It cannot make the whole realm heed its part.
The world esteems a careless, makeshift way;
Their eyes and ears lack vision's far-reaching ray.
With common fools it's hard to share a view;
Better to strive with those whose wisdom's true.
Alas! The flies and gnats, in folly deep,
Dislike the jade's pure glow they cannot keep.
Your tongues but slander, like a winnowing fan;
My heart remains a mirror, clear as it began.
I take my stand by ancient sages wise—
The Duke of Zhou, Confucius, Yang, and Mencius rise.
Even in their days, whether in want or fame,
They could not escape criticism and blame.
How much more for the likes of us, then,
To gain slander is but a fortunate pen.
A true man embraces a cause, a career;
He acts with force, awaiting a call sincere.
The dragon hides within the deep abyss,
Not shamed by croaking frogs' remiss.
The noble steed, tethered in the wild, confined,
Does not disdain the mud that mars its kind.
Once it ascends the heavenly road, wide and free,
It stands upright in court for all to see.
Ritual and righteousness stretch the state's strong cord;
Authority and favor honor the sovereign's sword.
Following in the steps of Gao and Kui, so grand,
To aid the lord, achieve a glorious, flourishing land.
Their names will hang like sun and moon on high;
Their deeds match heaven and earth, ne'er to die.
What are those others, then, worth to discuss?
I set forth my thoughts, turning them to laughter's plus.