Chinese poem illustration: 小雅 鹤鸣/ Xiaoya – Crane Singing by Anonymous
Full video also available at Bilibili: 小雅 鹤鸣
Crane is so called as fairy crane today(仙鹤), a half divine bird implicated longlife. This very first poem paralleled crane with an senior officer(卿大夫) with virtune, very likely the poet himself. The magic and bold vision of universe and creatures make this poem and its sentences very unique, to a level that not a follower dare to write about this subject again.
The second pair of sentences is derived from Yijing(I Ching/周易) : ䷀乾: 九四/或跃在渊, 无咎, which is about a crouching dragon. The first sentence could be derived from Yijing as well: ䷼中孚:上九/翰音登于天，貞凶. An argument on character 它 is put forward as well.
小雅 鹤鸣
佚名
鹤鸣于九皋，声闻于野。
鱼潜在渊，或在于渚。
乐彼之园，爰有树檀，其下维萚。
它山之石，可以为错。
鹤鸣于九皋，声闻于天。
鱼在于渚，或潜在渊。
乐彼之园，爰有树檀，其下维榖。
它山之石，可以攻玉。
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