Book of Songs
郑风·遵大路
佚名
遵大路兮，掺执子之祛兮。
无我恶兮，不寁故也。
遵大路兮，掺执子之手兮。
无我魗兮，不寁好也。
Translation
Along the great road, I take hold of your sleeve. Do not despise me; do not so quickly cut off our old affection. Along the great road, I take hold of your hand. Do not reject me; do not so quickly end the kindness we once shared.
Analysis
“Zun Da Lu” is a brief but intense poem of pleading. It gives almost no background: we do not know why the relationship is ending or who has caused the separation. What remains is one urgent scene on the road, where the speaker grasps the other person’s sleeve and then hand, begging not to be rejected. The emotional weight lies in the verbs and the repetition. To hold a sleeve or a hand is intimate, but here it becomes desperate. The speaker asks not to be despised and not to have old affection cut off so suddenly. The word “zǎn” suggests haste, making the break feel abrupt and unbearable. By stripping away narrative explanation, the poem focuses entirely on the moment of rupture. The great road becomes the place where one person leaves and the other tries, perhaps in vain, to keep love from ending.
About the Author
“Zun Da Lu” is an anonymous poem from the Zheng Airs in the Book of Songs. Many poems in the Airs do not tell complete stories; instead, they preserve a gesture, a phrase, or a moment of emotional pressure. This poem is a strong example of that method. With only two short stanzas, it leaves us with the image of someone holding on at the moment of abandonment.