1. Fair is the pool, half-circling round The college of our land. The plants of cress that there abound We pluck with eager hand. To it our prince of Lu draws nigh; We see his dragon banner fly, Free waving in the wind. And as he moves, his horses' bells Tinkle harmonious, and fast swells The crowd that comes behind.

2. Fair is the pool, half-circling round The college of our land. The pondweed plants that there abound We pluck with eager hand. Arrived is now our prince of Lu, With team of steeds that grandly show,— Steeds, each of highest worth. His fame is great. With winning smile. And blandest look, no haste the while, His lessons he gives forth.

3. Fair is the pool, half-circling round The college of our land. The mallow plants that there abound We pluck with eager hand. The college now our prince contains. Joyous, the festive cup he drains,— The cup of spirits good. His be the strength that knows not age! His be the noble course and sage, By which men are subdued!

4. Our prince of Lu has virtue rare; His reverence we see. His every step he guards with care; The people's mold is he. In peace and war his powers are proved, His mighty sires are deeply moved;— O'er him with love they bend. Through filial duty ever paid, And without farther effort made, Blessings on him descend.

5. Our prince of Lu has wisdom great; His virtue brighter grows. This college, glory of the state, To him its beauty owes. The tribes of Huai will own his sway; His tiger chiefs down here will lay The ears cut from their foes. His questioners, like Kao Yao wise, Will here rehearse their enterprise, And captive kerns expose.

6. His numerous officers, all true, And of a virtuous mind, Will haste with martial zeal to do The part to them assigned;— Those tribes from south and east. expel, Then back their triumphs come to tell, And here themselves report. The duke no judge's help will need, As calm and truthful here they plead Their claims before his court.

7. They draw their bows, with bone made strong. How whiz the arrows fleet! Their cars of war dash swift along, Eager the foe to meet. Drivers and footmen weary not, Till o'er the tribes of Huai is got A victory entire. Your plans, O prince, be firm and true! So shall you all those tribes subdue, And quench rebellion's fire.

8. On wing they come, those owls, and rest The college trees among. Our mulberry fruits they eat with zest, Grown birds of sweetest song So shall the Huai tribes change their minds,. And bring their tribute in all kinds Of produce rich and rare;— The ivory tusks, the tortoise big, The metals from their mines they dig;— Their fealty to declare.

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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