Book of Songs

唐风·鸨羽

Táng Fēng · Bǎo Yǔ

佚名

Yì míng

Sù sù bǎo yǔ, jí yú bāo xǔ. Wáng shì mí gǔ, bù néng yì jì shǔ. Fù mǔ hé hù? Yōu yōu cāng tiān, hé qí yǒu suǒ?

肃肃鸨羽，集于苞栩。王事靡盬，不能蓺稷黍。父母何怙？悠悠苍天，曷其有所？

Sù sù bǎo yì, jí yú bāo jí. Wáng shì mí gǔ, bù néng yì shǔ jì. Fù mǔ hé shí? Yōu yōu cāng tiān, hé qí yǒu jí?

肃肃鸨翼，集于苞棘。王事靡盬，不能蓺黍稷。父母何食？悠悠苍天，曷其有极？

Sù sù bǎo háng, jí yú bāo sāng. Wáng shì mí gǔ, bù néng yì dào liáng. Fù mǔ hé cháng? Yōu yōu cāng tiān, hé qí yǒu cháng?

肃肃鸨行，集于苞桑。王事靡盬，不能蓺稻粱。父母何尝？悠悠苍天，曷其有常？

Translation

The bustards’ feathers rustle as they settle in the thick oaks. The king’s service never rests; I cannot return to plant millet and grain. On whom can my parents rely? Vast, distant Heaven—when shall I have a place to dwell? The bustards’ wings rustle as they settle in the thorny bushes. The king’s service never rests; I cannot return to plant grain and millet. What will my parents eat? Vast, distant Heaven—when will this come to an end? The bustards alight in rows among the thick mulberry trees. The king’s service never rests; I cannot return to plant rice and sorghum. What will my parents taste? Vast, distant Heaven—when will there be any constancy?

Analysis

“Bao Yu” is one of the Book of Songs’ powerful poems on forced service. The repeated line “the king’s service never rests” defines the speaker’s condition: he is bound to public duty and cannot return to the fields. Yet the poem’s deepest pain is not self-pity. It is anxiety over parents left without support. The sequence “on whom can my parents rely,” “what will they eat,” and “what will they taste” makes filial concern immediate and concrete. The opening bird images intensify this pain. The bustards can settle in trees, while the speaker has no settled place. Birds find rest; the conscript cannot. The repeated crops—millet, grain, rice, sorghum—stand for the agricultural rhythm that sustains family life. Because service takes him away from that rhythm, political duty becomes domestic suffering. The appeal to distant Heaven at the end of each stanza shows that human complaint has nowhere else to go. The poem’s grief is restrained, but its indictment is severe.

About the Author

“Bao Yu” is an anonymous poem from “Tang Feng.” Traditional readings understand it as the lament of a man kept in service and unable to care for his parents. Many poems in the Book of Songs address labor, military duty, and separation from home; this poem is especially moving because it links public service directly with the failure of filial care. Its agricultural imagery reveals how deeply family, land, and livelihood were connected in early Chinese society.