Page 77 - 《论语》（三）中·英对照版
P. 77
先
进
第
十
一
“What are your wishes, Ch’ih?” said the Master
next to Kung-hsi Hwa.
Ch’ih replied, “I do not say that my ability
extends to these things, but I should wish to learn
them. At the services of the ancestral temple, and
at the audiences of the princes with the sovereign,
I should like, dressed in the dark square-made robe
and the black linen cap, to act as a small assistant.”
Last of all, the Master asked Tsang Hsi, “Tien,
what are your wishes?”
Tien, pausing as he was playing on his lute,
while it was yet twanging, laid the instrument aside,
and rose. “My wishes,” he said, “are different from
the cherished purposes of these three gentlemen.”
“What harm is there in that?” said the Master; “do
you also, as well as they, speak out your wishes.”
Tien then said, “In this, the last month of
spring, with the dress of the season all complete,
along with five or six young men who have assumed
59
