Book of Songs
Shi Wei
Anonymous
式微式微
胡不归
微君之故
胡为乎中露
式微式微
胡不归
微君之躬
胡为乎泥中
Translation
It grows dim, it grows dim. Why do we not return? If not for our lord's affairs, why would we be out here in the dew? It grows dim, it grows dim. Why do we not return? If not for our lord himself, why would we be here in the mud?
Analysis
"Shi Wei" is one of the shortest but most forceful poems in the "Bei Feng" section of the Book of Songs. It is often read as the voice of people kept outside in service or labor, unable to return home because of duties owed to their lord. The repeated phrase "It grows dim, it grows dim" creates the scene immediately. Evening has come. The day should be ending. People should be going home. But the speaker remains outside. "Why do we not return?" is the poem's central question. It is simple, but not innocent. The question carries fatigue, frustration, and suppressed resentment. The speaker knows why they cannot return; the question exposes the unfairness of that condition. "If not for our lord's affairs, why would we be out here in the dew?" The dew suggests night, cold, exposure, and discomfort. These people are not resting indoors. They are left in the open, enduring hardship for someone else's duty or command. The second stanza intensifies the image: from dew to mud. Mud suggests not only discomfort, but difficulty, dirt, and entrapment. The burden becomes more physical and humiliating. The poem does not openly rebel. Its power lies in rhetorical questioning. "If not for you, why would we be here?" That is a restrained but unmistakable accusation. The speaker's labor and suffering are made visible through a few concrete details: evening, dew, mud, and the denied return home. Later, "shi wei" became a phrase meaning decline or fading. But in the original poem, its force is more immediate: darkness has fallen, the body is tired, and yet one still cannot go home.
About the Author
"Shi Wei" comes from the "Bei Feng" 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. "Bei Feng" preserves songs associated with the region of Bei and the state of Wei, many of which concern marriage, family, politics, war, labor, social pressure, and emotional distress. "Shi Wei" is notable for its extreme brevity and its concentrated expression of hardship under service: night has fallen, yet the speaker cannot return.