《泰伯》 Passage 8.15

the Master said

• 子 honorific title: the Master (referring to Confucius)
• 曰 said, spoke

Music Master Zhi, the head court musician (proper name)

• 師 music master, master musician (title)
• 摯 Zhi, personal name of a court music master

translators vary the title (music master, musical director, Grand Musician, Master Musician) but all identify the same court musician named Zhi.

possessive/genitive particle: 's, of

beginning, start (of a musical performance)

Guanju, name of the first ode in the Book of Songs

• 關 onomatopoeic osprey-cry; first character of the ode's title
• 雎 osprey (a fish-hawk); second character of the ode's title

translators either transliterate the title (Guanju, Kuan chü) or translate it literally as 'Cry/Chirping of the Osprey.'

possessive/genitive particle: 's, of

finale, concluding movement (of a musical piece)

朱熹 glosses 亂 as 樂之卒章, the closing section; 劉台拱, followed by 劉寶楠, identifies it with the 合樂, the ensemble finale in which voices and instruments join, which Roberts's 'different parts' reflects.

overflowing, richly abundant (of sound)

• 洋 vast, overflowing (first of a reduplicated pair)
• 洋 vast, overflowing (second of a reduplicated pair)
• 乎 exclamatory suffix following a reduplicated adjective: how...!

the reduplicated 洋洋 plus exclamatory 乎 draws sharply different English images across translators — flood, torrent, ocean, superabundance — all elaborating the same sense of overwhelming abundance.

to fill the ears (of resounding sound)

• 盈 to fill, overflow
• 耳 ear, ears

final exclamatory particle: how...!

English fronts the exclamation as 'how' or 'what a' at the start of the clause instead of marking it with a final particle; only Roberts renders the clause as a plain declarative.