1. Come pluck the ferns, the ferns sharp-pointed take; The curling fronds now their appearance make. And now we march. O when shall we return? Till late next year we must in exile mourn. So long the husband, parted from his wife, Shall 'gainst the Hsien-yun wage the deadly strife. 'Mid service hard all rest will be denied;— Northwards we go, to quell the Hsien-yun's pride.

2. Come pluck the ferns, the ferns sharp-pointed pull; Their fronds uncurled, they tender look and cool. Onwards we march. O when shall we return? Disconsolate, our hearts in sadness mourn. Yes, sad our hearts! In sorrow forth we go, To thirst and hunger and each pinching woe. While serving thus the frontiers to defend, To those at home no message can we send.

3. Come pluck the ferns, their sharp points disregard; Some time has passed, and now their leaves are hard. What is the date for our return assigned? Next year's tenth month.—We keep it well in mind. But the king's work no grudging heart requires; Denied our rest, we fan our valor's fires. Home thoughts may often cause us weary hours, But home we go not, till success is ours.

4. What gorgeous sight was that which fixed our gaze? The mass of flowers the cherry tree displays. But here a sight we see, as fair and grand;— Our leader's car, given by his sovereign's hand. It stands equipt, imposing in our sight, With steeds all strong, and eager for the fight. And shall not we the inspiration own? One month our arms with victories three shall crown.

5. Grand are those four steeds, harnessed to the car! Conducted this, we boldly dare the war. With confidence the general takes his seat; The men behind rejoice the foe to meet. On move the steeds in step. The quiver made Of sealskin tough is to the view displayed, And bow with ivory ends,—the Hsien-yun's dread. Daily each other's courage we provoke, And hope to end our service by a stroke.

6. Ah! vain our efforts to assuage our grief! None know our sadness; nought can give relief. Last year, when from our homes the field we took, 'Twas sweet on willows fresh and green to look. When we return, 'twill be the winter stern, And hard our path through snow clouds to discern. Alas! how great the toilsome journey's length, With thirst and hunger to exhaust our strength!

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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