Prayer for the fast at the middle prime, the second中元齋詞
1Praying for rain in a drought
啓請如科儀。域中之四大難名。字之曰道。物外之三淸在想。心以爲齋。豈圖滋福於一身。唯願洽恩於萬彙。臣生逢聖日。志慕眞風。寧貪久視之門。有覬輕飛之路。但以行先不殆。德貴有餘。每虔一氣以存思。非止三元而展敬。今則雲摧火影。風戛金聲。當中元積慶之辰。謹修常醮。以下界罹災之事。仰告玄慈。一昨夏景旣闌。秋成甚邇。而乃曠野則飛羊斂翅。深泉則黑蜧藏鱗。嗷嗷之黔庶何依。烈烈之蒼穹莫訴。雖近沾美澤。而尙慊農郊。伏乞太上三尊。十方衆聖。下從精懇。大庇生靈。使風雨常調。煙塵永息。興聖祚於千秋萬歲。振歡聲於四海九州。然後俾臣功名則與國同休。道業則在家必達。水中泛泛。謝時態之澆浮。雲外飄飄。逐仙蹤而騫翥。旣探珠而有望。寧種玉以無因。臣不任祈恩救災懇禱虔惕之至。謹辭。
The opening petition is as the ritual code prescribes. The four great things within the realm are hard to name, and it is styled the Way. The Three Pure Ones beyond all things lie in the thought, and the mind is made the fast. How should he plan to swell blessing for his own body alone? He wishes only that kindness soak the myriad kinds. Your servant was born to meet a sage's day, and his will longs for the true wind. How should he covet the gate of long life? He does have a hope of the road of light flight, but his conduct puts first what brings no peril, and his virtue prizes having something to spare. Always he keeps the one breath in reverence and holds his thought upon it, and he does not set out his respect at the three primes only. Now the clouds break the shadow of fire, and the wind strikes a sound of metal. Coming to the day of heaped blessing at the middle prime, he reverently keeps the regular offering, and he looks up to report to the dark mercy the matter of the calamity that has struck the lower world. Not long ago the summer scene had already waned and the autumn harvest was very near, and yet in the open fields the shangyang bird folds its wings, and in the deep spring the black dragon hides its scales. On what shall the wailing black-haired people lean? To the blazing blue sky there is no appeal. Though a fair moisture has of late wet the ground, it is still not enough for the farming fields. I humbly beg the Three Most High Honored Ones and the host of saints of the ten directions to follow this pure earnestness below, and to shelter the living greatly. Let wind and rain be always in measure, and let smoke and dust rest forever. Let the sage line rise for a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, and let glad cries be shaken out over the four seas and the nine provinces. After that, let your servant's merit and name be fair together with the state, and let his work in the Way come through even at home. Floating upon the water, let him take leave of the thin and shallow manners of the age. Fluttering beyond the clouds, let him follow the traces of the immortals and soar. Since he has groped for the pearl and has his hope, how should the planting of jade leave him without the bond? Your servant cannot bear the fullness of his prayer for kindness and for rescue from calamity, his earnest petition and his reverent dread. This he submits with respect.
Interlinear notes 1
The base text has 飛羊, "flying sheep," but sheep have no wings; it is taken as the shangyang, the one-legged bird said to dance before rain. The heilei is a black dragon that summons rain. — translator