Chinese poem illustration: 郑风 子衿/ Zheng Wind – His Collar by Anonymous
Full video also available at Bilibili: 郑风 子衿
A love poem, the tenderness, hurting and sorrow in a affair are perfectly addressed. The idiom His Dark Blue Collar(青青子衿) finally becomes a pronoun for a beloved young boy with sophistication.
This poem is quite popular today per its intelligibility. Not like some other poems in Shijing, it talks something purelly personal and eternal rather than those things like lords, common interests(公), ancestors etc. which is non-personal, which is unfamiliar to today’s people. Love between a girl and a boy, between two persons had never changed through the history on land of earth. There is still a possibility that it is about brotherhood, a key value in Zhou dynasty.
郑风 子衿
佚名
青青子衿，悠悠我心。
纵我不往，子宁不嗣音？
青青子佩，悠悠我思。
纵我不往，子宁不来？
挑兮达兮，在城阙兮。
一日不见，如三月兮！
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