About this book

Here are poems from the first section of The Book of Songs 诗经 (pronounced Shī jīng) with my loose translations. This section, titled “Airs of the States,” 國颊 (pronounced Guó fēng), contains 160 poems compiled in the 8th & 7th centuries BCE, during the Zhou dynasty in the Western Zhou period. The Book of Songs is one of the Five Classics of the traditional Confucian canon.

“Airs of the States” were folksongs collected from the fifteen territorial states of Zhou for the emperor to learn of the feelings and conditions of his subjects.

• 周南 — Poems of Zhou and the South
• 11 poems from south of Zhou, which was the fief of Zhou Gongdan, the area around southwestern Henan and northwestern Hubei today.
• 召南 — Poems of Shao and the South
• 14 poems from Shao, located in the southwest of Qishan County, Shaanxi Province today.
• 邶风 — Poems of Bei
• 19 poems from Bei, a state in the Zhou Dynasty, located southeast of Tangyin Country, Henan Province today.
• 鄘风 — Poems of Yong
• 10 poems from Yong, located in the territory of present-day Weihui City, Henan Province.
• 卫风 — Poems of Wei
• 10 poems from Wei, located in modern northeastern Henan Province, east of Jin, and west of Cao.
• 王风 — Poems of Wang
• 10 poems from Wang, located at Luoyang, Henan province.
• 郑风 — Poems of Zheng
• 21 poems from Zheng, located in the centre of ancient China in modern-day Henan Province on the North China Plain about 75 miles east of the royal capital at Luoyang.
• 齐风 — Poems of Qi
• 11 poems from Qi, with its capital Linzi, was in the eastern part of the present-day Shandong province.
• 魏风 — Poems of Wey
• 7 poems from Wey, located in the northeast of the city of Rui in present-day Shanxi, Henan Province.
• 唐风 — Poems of Tang
• 12 poems from Tang, a major state located in the southern part of modern Shanxi, Taiyuan province.
• 秦风 — Poems of Qin
• 10 poems from Qin, located in the hinterland of China, in the middle of the Yellow River, east of Shanxi, Henan Province.
• 陳风 — Poems of Chen
• 10 poems from Chen, a state in present-day Huaiyang County in the plains of eastern Henan province.
• 桧风 — Poems of Gui
• 4 poems from Gui, located in the area of Zhengzhou, Xinzheng, Xianyang and Mi County in present-day Henan Province.
• 曹风 — Poems of Cao
• 4 poems from Cao, a vassal state covering roughly the area of modern-day Dingtao County, Shandong Province.
• 豳风 — Poems of Bin
• 7 poems from Bin, located in the area of present-day Shaanxi, Bin County, bordering Gansu province.

The full Chinese classic contains 305 poems. Five more sections include 74 “Lesser Court Hymns,” 31 “Major Court Hymns,” 31 “Eulogies of Zhou,” 4 “Eulogies of Lu,” and 5 “Eulogies of Shang.”

I have not intended that my loose translations reproduce the rhymes and other structures of the originals. Nor have I found it necessary to reproduce all metaphors and allusions. In this spirit, a poet might write more than one loose translation of one of these poems. I hope that my interpretation, however, encourages you to study the originals.

This text uses simplified Chinese characters (used in mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore), not the traditional Chinese characters (used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau).

The cover features my drawing of 诗经. The photo of the author is by Liz Douthitt Sharp.

How this book is organized

The book has three pages for each poem and its translations. Language codes label the links in the header and footer. Zh is the language code for Chinese.

1. En: My poem (in English)
2. Zh+literal: The original Chinese poem, with a literal translation
3. En+Zh: My poem, with the original Chinese poem

Links and shortcuts

In any page, you can click on or touch links to jump around in this book.

• Each entry in the contents links to the poem.
• The title for a poem links back to the contents, highlighting the entry for the poem.
• Words in the headers and footers link to the index, the contents, a listing of books by the author, to this page, and to the previous and next poems in the book.

You may find the following keyboard equivalents to be convenient. Here I use the symbol ⌥ for the option key on Mac/OS or the alt key on Windows, ⇧ for the shift key, and ⏎ for the return (enter) key. Arrow keys are ◄ (left), ► (right), ▲ (up), and ▼ (down).

Keyboard shortcuts for navigating this book

Context	Keys	Jump to / Behavior
cover	⌥ ◄	Books by Tom Sharp
	⌥ ▲	About Tom Sharp
	⌥ ►	about this book (this page)
	⌥ ▼	contents
	⇧ ⌥ ▼	contents
contents	⇧ ⌥ ▲	cover
	⌥ ▼	select the next item in the contents
	⌥ ▲	select the previous item in the contents
	⌥ ►	open the selected page
	⌥ ⏎	open the selected page
poem	⇧ ⌥ ▲	contents
	⌥ ◄	contents
	⌥ ▲	open the previous page
	⌥ ►	open the original + literal translation, translation + original, or translation in rotation
	⌥ ▼	open the next page

The poet

Tom Sharp is a Native American of Aleut heritage, a member of Seldovia Village Tribe. He is the author of many books, including Spectacles: A Sampler of Poems and Prose, Taurean Horn Press (ISBN 0-931552-10-9), a novel, Hans and the Clock (ISBN 979-8580172484), The book of science, SciFi (ISBN 979-8694935210), Things People Do (ISBN 979-8687425568), The book of beliefs (ISBN 979-8683553593), The I Ching (ISBN 979-8573510620), Images (ISBN 979-8577560515), Aleut Artifacts (ISBN 979-8575608998), Aleut Words (ISBN 979-8582103394), First Nations (ISBN 979-8682924769), Shevchenko : Шевченко (ISBN 979-8286863815), Twilight: loose translations of Pablo Neruda (ISBN 979-8294301910), Poésies: loose translations of Arthur Rimbaud (ISBN 979-8294301910), Li Bai: loose translations (ISBN 969-8296321633), and Du Fu: loose translations (ISBN 969-8296414748).

You may email tom/AT/sharpgiving/DOT/-c-o-m-/ to share comments on this work.