“淑女” and “君子” are leading characters of this love song。 This love song is sung between lanes to extol affection between a young man and a girl。 So figures and objects in them are linked with civilians, not having involvement with princes and aristocrats。 All and all do not relate to status and position。 “淑女” refers to the nice and beautiful girls。 It is a girl that has both pretty appearance and noble quality。 Xu’s version, “fair maiden” is not so accurate because he just highlighted the girls’ beautiful appearance but ignored her moral quality。 Waley translating into “noble lady” could cover the shortage of Xu。 However, the word “ lady” seems to be too elegant for a common girl。 The folk song sings social life of laboring people so that the character in it must be plebeians and have no contact with the nobility。So both of their versions are not perfect in the point of faithfulness。

In the same way, “君子” is s young man who is a common laboring people。 It has nothing to do with the nobility。 Then we can find Waley’s version, “lord” is unreasonable wile Xu’s “a young man” is very perfect to express the source song’s meaning and definition。 For “君子”, Xu’s version is better than Waley’s。

As Li Yuliang once said: “ nouns in The Book of Songs not only represent animals, plants。 They always contain historical and cultural significance, literary aesthetic significance。” (Li 96)