Chinese poem illustration: 豳风 鸱鸮/ Bin Wind – Owl by Duke of Zhou

豳风 鸱鸮

Full video also available at Bilibili: 豳风 鸱鸮

A poem with history background dating back 3000 years ago by Duke of Zhou(周公 or 姬旦) reflected a dangerous enemy and a fury but firm regent. The poet paralelled himself as a parent bird, facing the crucial owl who had taken his/her sons, been destroying family nest…The earlist fable in Chinese poetry.

The poem is quite simple and straight forward after the background briefing, a introduction revealing why a loud and strong voice means so much in distress. The evil bird of owl could refer to King Cheng(成王), in another word heaven, or the rebellions(武庚) by recent analysis.

豳风 鸱鸮
姬旦

鸱鸮鸱鸮,既取我子,无毁我室。
恩斯勤斯,鬻子之闵斯。

迨天之未阴雨,彻彼桑土,绸缪牖户。
今女下民,或敢侮予?

予手拮据,予所捋荼。
予所蓄租,予口卒瘏,曰予未有室家。

予羽谯谯,予尾翛翛,予室翘翘。
风雨所漂摇,予维音哓哓!

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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