詩経
草虫
Anonymous
喓喓草虫
趯趯阜螽
未见君子
忧心忡忡
亦既见止
亦既觏止
我心则降
陟彼南山
言采其蕨
未见君子
忧心惙惙
亦既见止
亦既觏止
我心则说
陟彼南山
言采其薇
未见君子
我心伤悲
亦既见止
亦既觏止
我心则夷
翻訳
The grass insects chirp, yao yao; the hill crickets leap, tiao tiao. Before I have seen my lord, my heart is full of anxious sorrow. Once I have seen him, once I have met him, my heart will settle down. I climb that southern mountain, to gather its bracken. Before I have seen my lord, my heart is weary with sorrow. Once I have seen him, once I have met him, my heart will rejoice. I climb that southern mountain, to gather its vetch. Before I have seen my lord, my heart is wounded with grief. Once I have seen him, once I have met him, my heart will become calm.
解説
"Cao Chong" is a poem from the "Shao Nan" section of the Book of Songs. It is a poem of longing, usually read as the voice of a woman waiting to see her husband or beloved. Its central movement is the contrast between "not yet seen" and "once seen": before meeting him, the heart is restless; after meeting him, it becomes settled, joyful, and calm. The opening images are of insects: grass insects chirp, hill crickets leap. These sounds and motions are natural, but they also mirror the speaker's inner unrest. The world is alive with small, repeated movements, just as her heart is unsettled by longing. "Before I have seen my lord, my heart is full of anxious sorrow" gives the emotional key. The word "lord" here is best understood as the man she longs for, likely her husband or beloved. The anxiety comes from absence, not from abstract sadness. The refrain "Once I have seen him, once I have met him" expresses imagined relief. To see and meet him would cause the heart to "settle down." This is a precise emotional image: the heart has been suspended and disturbed; reunion lets it descend into rest. The second and third stanzas place the woman in a labor setting. She climbs the southern mountain to gather bracken, then vetch. These are ordinary acts of gathering wild plants, but in the poem they become the background for longing. Her hands work in the mountains, while her mind remains fixed on the absent man. The emotional vocabulary develops across the stanzas. First her heart is anxious, then weary with sorrow, then wounded with grief. The imagined effect of reunion also develops: the heart settles, rejoices, and finally becomes calm. This is not empty repetition; it traces a deepening emotional sequence. The beauty of the poem lies in its combination of nature, labor, and feeling. Insect sounds, mountain gathering, and longing are all part of the same world.
作者紹介
"Cao Chong" comes from the "Shao Nan" section of the "Airs of the States" in the Book of Songs. Its author is unknown. The Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, containing more than three hundred poems from roughly the early Western Zhou to the mid-Spring and Autumn period. "Shao Nan," together with "Zhou Nan," forms the opening part of the "Airs of the States" and contains many poems related to marriage, household life, labor, ritual, and social order. "Cao Chong" is a representative poem of longing, using insect sounds and mountain gathering to express anxiety before reunion and peace after meeting.