诗者，志之所之也，在心为志，发言为诗。
Poetry is where the resolve goes. In the heart, it is resolve; manifested in words, it is a poem. 

情动于中而行于言，言之不足，故嗟叹之，嗟叹之不足故永歌之，永歌之不足，不知手之舞之，足之蹈之也。
Emotion moves within and takes shape in words. Words are not enough, and so one sighs it. Sighing is not enough, and so one draws it out in song. Drawing it out in song is not enough, and so unknowingly one’s hands dance it and one’s feet tread it.
 
情发于声，声成文谓之音。治世之音安以乐，其政和；乱世之音怨以怒，其其政乖；亡国之音哀以思，其民困。
Emotion is manifested in the voice. When voice is patterned, we call it tone. The tone of a well-governed state is peaceful and happy; its government is harmonious. The tone of a chaotic age is resentful and angry; its government is perverse. The tone of a lost state is full of sorrow and longing; its people are in straits.

故正得失，动天地，感鬼神，莫近于诗。
Thus for correcting gain and loss, moving Heaven and Earth, and affecting the spirits, nothing comes close to poetry. 

先王以是经夫妇，成孝敬，厚人伦，美教化，移风俗。
The early kings used poetry to regulate relations between husbands and wives, to perfect filiality and respect, to enrich human relations, to adorn the moral transformation of the people and to change customs. 

故诗有六义焉：一曰风，二曰赋，三曰比，四曰兴，五曰雅，六曰颂。
Thus poetry has Six Principles:  the first is called “Air.”  The second is called recitation; the third is called “analogy”; the fourth is called “stimulus”; the fifth is called “Ya,” and the sixth is called “Hymn.”