These lines are from ‘Drowning in the River’ 沈江, the second of the poems known as the ‘Seven Remonstrances’ 七諫 in The Songs of the South 楚辭, a collection of poems from the fourth-century BCE long associated with the name Qu Yuan 屈原, China’s ‘Archpoet’.[2] As David Hawkes, translator and scholar of The Songs points out:

The anonymous author of these poems assumes the persona of Qu Yuan as a poetic convention enabling him to rail with impunity against the injustice of his employer and the iniquity of the times.[3]

As for the fourth-century BCE poet Qu Yuan himself, Hawkes sums up his story in the following way:

… he was an honest minister of King Huai of Chu; he was banished from court because of some scandal or intrigue; he wrote the Li sao [離騷 ‘On Encountering Trouble’] to protest against the injustice of his dismissal; and, having written the Li sao, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the Mi-luo, a tributary of the River Xiang.[4]

… …

The Confucian cult of Qu Yuan is another matter. In it a whole class — that of the office-holding man of letters — found a heroic symbol of itself, one that would serve to shore up a bureaucrat’s flagging self-esteem in times of rejection, unemployment and adversity. To speak out for what one believed to be the right policy, even if one was alone in believing it and when the cost of doing so was demotion, disgrace or even death — that was the scholar-official’ so idea of honour. It was, in a way, a curiously literary one, because it meant that he looked no longer towards his contemporaries but towards a literate posterity to judge him. Qu Yuan first gave expression to this heroic ideal and we see it again and again being developed in the later poems of this anthology [in ‘Seven Remonstrances’, for example — Ed.]. The following lines may not have been written by the great Master himself, but they echo what he more than once stated in the Li sao:

The world is muddy-witted, none can know me;
the heart of man cannot be told.
I know that death cannot be avoided,
therefore I will not grudge its coming.
To noble men I here plainly declare that
I will be numbered with such as you.[5]

世溷濁莫吾知，
人心不可謂兮。
知死不可讓，
願勿愛兮。
明告君子，
吾將以為類兮。

Below we offer the opening lines of the first of the ‘Seven Remonstrances’, ‘When First Exiled’ 初放, to provide some context to the lines given above. The full text of ‘Drowning in the River’ is appended below.[6]

The full text of ‘Drowning in the River’ (with the lines about Boyi and Shuqi highlighted) reads:

《七諫 沈江》

惟往古之得失兮，覽私微之所傷。
堯舜聖而慈仁兮，後世稱而弗忘。
齊桓失於專任兮，夷吾忠而名彰。
晉獻惑於孋姬兮，申生孝而被殃。
偃王行其仁義兮，荊文寤而徐亡。
紂暴虐以失位兮，周得佐乎呂望。
修往古以行恩兮，封比乾之丘壟。
賢俊慕而自附兮，日浸淫而合同。
明法令而修理兮，蘭芷幽而有芳。
苦眾人之妒予兮，箕子寤而佯狂。
不顧地以貪名兮，心怫郁而內傷。
聯蕙芷以為佩兮，過鮑肆而失香。
正臣端其操行兮，反離謗而見攘。
世俗更而變化兮，伯夷餓於首陽。
獨廉潔而不容兮，叔齊久而逾明。
浮雲陳而蔽晦兮，使日月乎無光。
忠臣貞而欲諫兮，讒諛毀而在旁。
秋草榮其將實兮，微霜下而夜降。
商風肅而害生兮，百草育而不長。
眾並諧以妒賢兮，孤聖特而易傷。
懷計謀而不見用兮，巖穴處而隱藏。
成功隳而不卒兮，子胥死而不葬。
世從俗而變化兮，隨風靡而成行。
信直退而毀敗兮，虛偽進而得當。
追悔過之無及兮，豈盡忠而有功。
廢制度而不用兮，務行私而去公。
終不變而死節兮，惜年齒之未央。
將方舟而下流兮，冀幸君之發蒙。
痛忠言之逆耳兮，恨申子之沈江。
願悉心之所聞兮，遭值君之不聰。
不開寤而難道兮，不別橫之與縱。
聽奸臣之浮說兮，絕國家之久長。
滅規矩而不用兮，背繩墨之正方。
離憂患而乃寤兮，若縱火於秋蓬。
業失之而不救兮，尚何論乎禍凶。
彼離畔而朋黨兮，獨行之士其何望？
日漸染而不自知兮，秋毫微哉而變容。
眾輕積而折軸兮，原咎雜而累重。
赴湘沅之流澌兮，恐逐波而復東。
懷沙礫而自沈兮，不忍見君之蔽壅。

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Source
David Hawkes, The Songs of the South, An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets, translated, annotated and introduced by David Hawkes, Penguin Books, 1985.

Notes
[1] From ‘Drowning in the River’, Hawkes, The Songs of the South, p.248. The Chinese original has been added.
[2] Hawkes, The Songs of the South, p.27.
[3] Hawkes, The Songs of the South, p.246.
[4] Hawkes, The Songs of the South, p.52.
[5] Hawkes, The Songs of the South, p.66, and for the poem, see ‘Embracing Sand’ 懷沙, pp.169-172. The Chinese original has been added.
[6] Hawkes, The Songs of the South, pp.248-250.
[7] The Songs of the South, pp.246-247. The Chinese original has been added.