Classic of Poetry

You have made us drink to the full of your spirits; You have satiated us with your kindness, May you enjoy, O our lord, myriads of years! May your bright happiness [ever] be increased!

You have made us drink to the full of your spirits; Your viands were all set out before us. May you enjoy, O our lord, myriads of years! May your bright intelligence [ever] be increased!

May your bright intelligence become perfect, High and brilliant, leading to a good end! That good end has [now] its beginning:— The personator of your ancestors announced it in his blessing.

What was his announcement? ‘[The offerings in] your dishes of bamboo and wood are clean and fine. Your friends assisting at the service, Have done their part with reverent demeanour.

‘Your reverent demeanour was altogether what the occasion required, And not yours only, but that also of your filial son. For such filial piety, without ceasing, There will ever be conferred blessing on you.

‘What will the blessings be? That along the passages of your palace You shall move for ten thousand years; And there will be granted to you for ever dignity and posterity.

‘How as to your posterity? Heaven invests you with your dignity, Yea for ten thousand years, The bright appointment is attached to your person.

‘How will it be attached? There is given you a heroic wife. There is given you a heroic wife, And from her shall come [the line of] descendants.’