車轔轔，馬蕭蕭，行人弓箭各在腰。
　　耶娘妻子走相送，塵埃不見鹹陽橋。
　　牽衣頓足攔道哭，哭聲直上幹雲霄！
　　道旁過者問行人，行人但雲點行頻。
　　或從十五北防河，便至四十西營田。
　　去時裏正與裹頭，歸來頭白還戍邊！
　　邊亭流血成海水，武皇開邊意未已。
　　君不聞，漢傢山東二百州，千村萬落生荊杞！
　　縱有健婦把鋤犁，禾生隴畝無東西。
　　況復秦兵耐苦戰，被驅不異犬與雞。
　　長者雖有問，役夫敢申恨？
　　且如今年鼕，未休關西卒。
　　縣官急索租，租稅從何出？
　　信知生男惡，反是生女好。
　　生女猶得嫁比鄰，生男埋沒隨百草！
　　君不見，青海頭，古來白骨無人收。
　　新鬼煩冤舊鬼哭，天陰雨濕聲啾啾！

　　The war-chariots rattle,
　　The war-horses whinny.
　　Each man of you has a bow and a quiver at his belt.
　　Father, mother, son, wife, stare at you going,
　　Till dust shall have buried the bridge beyond Changan.
　　They run with you, crying, they tug at your sleeves,
　　And the sound of their sorrow goes up to the clouds;
　　And every time a bystander asks you a question,
　　You can only say to him that you have to go.
　　...We remember others at fifteen sent north to guard the river
　　And at forty sent west to cultivate the campfarms.
　　The mayor wound their turbans for them when they started out.
　　With their turbaned hair white now, they are still at the border,
　　At the border where the blood of men spills like the sea –
　　And still the heart of Emperor Wu is beating for war.
　　...Do you know that, east of China's mountains, in two hundred districts
　　And in thousands of villages, nothing grows but weeds,
　　And though strong women have bent to the ploughing,
　　East and west the furrows all are broken down?
　　...Men of China are able to face the stiffest battle,
　　But their officers drive them like chickens and dogs.
　　Whatever is asked of them,
　　Dare they complain?
　　For example, this winter
　　Held west of the gate,
　　Challenged for taxes,
　　How could they pay?
　　...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck-
　　It is very much better to have a daughter
　　Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,
　　While under the sod we bury our boys.
　　...Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore
　　At all the old white bones forsaken –
　　New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,
　　Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.

　　鳴箏金粟柱，素手玉房前。
　　欲得周郎顧，時時誤拂弦。

　　Her hands of white jade by a window of snow
　　Are glimmering on a golden-fretted harp –
　　And to draw the quick eye of Chou Yu,
　　She touches a wrong note now and then.

元和十年，予左遷九江郡司馬。明年秋，送客湓浦口。聞舟中夜彈琵琶者，聽其音，錚錚然有京都聲。問其人，本長安倡女。嘗學琵琶於穆、曹二善纔，年長色衰，委身為賈人婦。遂命酒使快彈數麯，麯罷憫然。自敘少小時歡樂事，今漂淪憔悴，轉徙於江湖間。予出官二年，恬然自安，感斯人言，是夕始覺有遷謫意。因為長句，歌以贈之，凡六百一十二言，命曰《琵琶行》。　　潯陽江頭夜送客，楓葉荻花秋瑟瑟。
　　主人下馬客在船，舉酒欲飲無管弦。
　　醉不成歡慘將別，別時茫茫江浸月。
　　忽聞水上琵琶聲，主人忘歸客不發。
　　尋聲暗問彈者誰，琵琶聲停欲語遲。
　　移船相近邀相見，添酒回燈重開宴。
　　千呼萬喚始出來，猶抱琵琶半遮面。
　　轉軸撥弦三兩聲，未成麯調先有情。
　　弦弦掩抑聲聲思，似訴平生不得意。
　　低眉信手續續彈，說盡心中無限事。
　　輕攏慢捻抹復挑，初為霓裳後六幺。
　　大弦嘈嘈如急雨，小弦切切如私語。
　　嘈嘈切切錯雜彈，大珠小珠落玉盤。
　　間關鶯語花底滑，幽咽泉流冰下難。冰泉冷澀弦疑絶，疑絶不通聲暫歇。
　　別有幽愁暗恨生，此時無聲勝有聲。銀瓶乍破水漿迸，鐵騎突出刀槍鳴。
　　麯終收撥當心畫，四弦一聲如裂帛。東舟西舫悄無言，唯見江心秋月白。
　　
　　沉吟放撥插弦中，整頓衣裳起斂容。自言本是京城女，傢在蝦蟆陵下住。
　　十三學得琵琶成，名屬教坊第一部。麯罷曾教善纔伏，妝成每被秋娘妒。
　　五陵年少爭纏頭，一麯紅綃不知數。鈿頭雲篦擊節碎，血色羅裙翻酒污。
　　今年歡笑復明年，秋月春風等閑度。弟走從軍阿姨死，暮去朝來顔色故。
　　門前冷落鞍馬稀，老大嫁作商人婦。商人重利輕別離，前月浮梁買茶去。
　　去來江口守空船，繞船月明江水寒。夜深忽夢少年事，夢啼妝淚紅闌幹。
　　我聞琵琶已嘆息，又聞此語重唧唧。同是天涯淪落人，相逢何必曾相識。
　　我從去年辭帝京，謫居臥病潯陽城。潯陽地僻無音樂，終歲不聞絲竹聲。
　　住近湓江地低濕，黃蘆苦竹繞宅生。其間旦暮聞何物，杜鵑啼血猿哀鳴。
　　春江花朝秋月夜，往往取酒還獨傾。豈無山歌與村笛，嘔啞嘲咋難為聽。
　　今夜聞君琵琶語，如聽仙樂耳暫明。莫辭更坐彈一麯，為君翻作琵琶行。
　　感我此言良久立，卻坐促弦弦轉急。凄凄不似嚮前聲，滿座重聞皆掩泣。
　　座中泣下誰最多？江州司馬青衫濕。

　　I was bidding a guest farewell, at night on the Xunyang River,
　　Where maple-leaves and full-grown rushes rustled in the autumn.
　　I, the host, had dismounted, my guest had boarded his boat,
　　And we raised our cups and wished to drink-but, alas, there was no music.
　　For all we had drunk we felt no joy and were parting from each other,
　　When the river widened mysteriously toward the full moon –
　　We had heard a sudden sound, a guitar across the water.
　　Host forgot to turn back home, and guest to go his way.
　　We followed where the melody led and asked the player's name.
　　The sound broke off...then reluctantly she answered.
　　We moved our boat near hers, invited her to join us,
　　Summoned more wine and lanterns to recommence our banquet.
　　Yet we called and urged a thousand times before she started toward us,
　　Still hiding half her face from us behind her guitar.
　　...She turned the tuning-pegs and tested several strings;
　　We could feel what she was feeling, even before she played:
　　Each string a meditation, each note a deep thought,
　　As if she were telling us the ache of her whole life.
　　She knit her brows, flexed her fingers, then began her music,
　　Little by little letting her heart share everything with ours.
　　She brushed the strings, twisted them slow, swept them, plucked them –
　　First the air of The Rainbow Skirt, then The Six Little Ones.
　　The large strings hummed like rain,
　　The small strings whispered like a secret,
　　Hummed, whispered-and then were intermingled
　　Like a pouring of large and small pearls into a plate of jade.
　　We heard an oriole, liquid, hidden among flowers.
　　We heard a brook bitterly sob along a bank of sand...
　　By the checking of its cold touch, the very string seemed broken
　　As though it could not pass; and the notes, dying away
　　Into a depth of sorrow and concealment of lament,
　　Told even more in silence than they had told in sound....
　　A silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water,
　　And out leapt armored horses and weapons that clashed and smote –
　　And, before she laid her pick down, she ended with one stroke,
　　And all four strings made one sound, as of rending silk
　　There was quiet in the east boat and quiet in the west,
　　And we saw the white autumnal moon enter the river's heart.
　　...When she had slowly placed the pick back among the strings,
　　She rose and smoothed her clothing and, formal, courteous,
　　Told us how she had spent her girlhood at the capital,
　　Living in her parents' house under the Mount of Toads,
　　And had mastered the guitar at the age of thirteen,
　　With her name recorded first in the class-roll of musicians,
　　Her art the admiration even of experts,
　　Her beauty the envy of all the leading dancers,
　　How noble youths of Wuling had lavishly competed
　　And numberless red rolls of silk been given for one song,
　　And silver combs with shell inlay been snapped by her rhythms,
　　And skirts the colour of blood been spoiled with stains of wine....
　　Season after season, joy had followed joy,
　　Autumn moons and spring winds had passed without her heeding,
　　Till first her brother left for the war, and then her aunt died,
　　And evenings went and evenings came, and her beauty faded –
　　With ever fewer chariots and horses at her door;
　　So that finally she gave herself as wife to a merchant
　　Who, prizing money first, careless how he left her,
　　Had gone, a month before, to Fuliang to buy tea.
　　And she had been tending an empty boat at the river's mouth,
　　No company but the bright moon and the cold water.
　　And sometimes in the deep of night she would dream of her triumphs
　　And be wakened from her dreams by the scalding of her tears.
　　Her very first guitar-note had started me sighing;
　　Now, having heard her story, I was sadder still.
　　"We are both unhappy – to the sky's end.
　　We meet. We understand. What does acquaintance matter?
　　I came, a year ago, away from the capital
　　And am now a sick exile here in Jiujiang –
　　And so remote is Jiujiang that I have heard no music,
　　Neither string nor bamboo, for a whole year.
　　My quarters, near the River Town, are low and damp,
　　With bitter reeds and yellowed rushes all about the house.
　　And what is to be heard here, morning and evening? –
　　The bleeding cry of cuckoos, the whimpering of apes.
　　On flowery spring mornings and moonlit autumn nights
　　I have often taken wine up and drunk it all alone,
　　Of course there are the mountain songs and the village pipes,
　　But they are crude and-strident, and grate on my ears.
　　And tonight, when I heard you playing your guitar,
　　I felt as if my hearing were bright with fairymusic.
　　Do not leave us. Come, sit down. Play for us again.
　　And I will write a long song concerning a guitar."
　　...Moved by what I said, she stood there for a moment,
　　Then sat again to her strings-and they sounded even sadder,
　　Although the tunes were different from those she had played before....
　　The feasters, all listening, covered their faces.
　　But who of them all was crying the most?
　　This Jiujiang official. My blue sleeve was wet.

　　漢皇重色思傾國，禦宇多年求不得。
　　楊傢有女初長成，養在深閨人未識。
　　天生麗質難自棄，一朝選在君王側。
　　回眸一笑百媚生，六宮粉黛無顔色。
　　春寒賜浴華清池，溫泉水滑洗凝脂。
　　侍兒扶起嬌無力，始是新承恩澤時。
　　雲鬢花顔金步搖，芙蓉帳暖度春宵。
　　春宵苦短日高起，從此君王不早朝。
　　承歡侍宴無閑暇，春從春遊夜專夜。
　　後宮佳麗三千人，三千寵愛在一身。
　　金屋妝成嬌侍夜，玉樓宴罷醉和春。
　　姊妹弟兄皆列土，可憐光彩生門戶。
　　遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女。
　　
　　驪宮高處入青雲，仙樂風飄處處聞。
　　緩歌慢舞凝絲竹，盡日君王看不足。
　　漁陽鼙鼓動地來，驚破霓裳羽衣麯。
　　九重城闕煙塵生，千乘萬騎西南行。
　　翠華搖搖行復止，西出都門百餘裏。六軍不發無奈何，宛轉蛾眉馬前死。
　　花鈿委地無人收，翠翹金雀玉搔頭。君王掩面救不得，回看血淚相和流。
　　黃埃散漫風蕭索，雲棧縈紆登劍閣。峨嵋山下少人行，旌旗無光日色薄。
　　蜀江水碧蜀山青，聖主朝朝暮暮情。行宮見月傷心色，夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。
　　天旋日轉回竜馭，到此躊躇不能去。馬嵬坡下泥土中，不見玉顔空死處。
　　君臣相顧盡沾衣，東望都門信馬歸。歸來池苑皆依舊，太液芙蓉未央柳。
　　芙蓉如面柳如眉，對此如何不淚垂。春風桃李花開夜，秋雨梧桐葉落時。
　　西宮南內多秋草，落葉滿階紅不掃。梨園弟子白發新，椒房阿監青娥老。
　　夕殿螢飛思悄然，孤燈挑盡未成眠。遲遲鐘鼓初長夜，耿耿星河欲曙天。
　　鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重，翡翠衾寒誰與共。悠悠生死別經年，魂魄不曾來入夢。
　　臨邛道士鴻都客，能以精誠緻魂魄。為感君王展轉思，遂教方士殷勤覓。
　　排空馭氣奔如電，升天入地求之遍。上窮碧落下黃泉，兩處茫茫皆不見。
　　忽聞海上有仙山，山在虛無縹渺間。樓閣玲瓏五雲起，其中綽約多仙子。
　　中有一人字太真，雪膚花貌參差是。金闕西廂叩玉扃，轉教小玉報雙成。
　　聞到漢傢天子使，九華帳裏夢魂驚。攬衣推枕起徘回，珠箔銀屏邐迤開。
　　雲鬢半偏新睡覺，花冠不整下堂來。風吹仙袂飄搖舉，猶似霓裳羽衣舞。
　　玉容寂寞淚闌幹，梨花一枝春帶雨。
　　
　　含情凝睇謝君王，一別音容兩渺茫。昭陽殿裏恩愛絶，蓬萊宮中日月長。
　　回頭下望人寰處，不見長安見塵霧。唯將舊物表深情，鈿合金釵寄將去。
　　釵留一股合一扇，釵擘黃金合分鈿。但教心似金鈿堅，天上人間會相見。
　　臨別殷勤重寄詞，詞中有誓兩心知。七月七日長生殿，夜半無人私語時。
　　在天願作比翼鳥，在地願為連理枝。天長地久有時盡，此恨綿綿無絶期。

　　China's Emperor, craving beauty that might shake an empire,
　　Was on the throne for many years, searching, never finding,
　　Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even grown,
　　Bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her,
　　But with graces granted by heaven and not to be concealed,
　　At last one day was chosen for the imperial household.
　　If she but turned her head and smiled, there were cast a hundred spells,
　　And the powder and paint of the Six Palaces faded into nothing.
　　...It was early spring. They bathed her in the FlowerPure Pool,
　　Which warmed and smoothed the creamy-tinted crystal of her skin,
　　And, because of her languor, a maid was lifting her
　　When first the Emperor noticed her and chose her for his bride.
　　The cloud of her hair, petal of her cheek, gold ripples of her crown when she moved,
　　Were sheltered on spring evenings by warm hibiscus curtains;
　　But nights of spring were short and the sun arose too soon,
　　And the Emperor, from that time forth, forsook his early hearings
　　And lavished all his time on her with feasts and revelry,
　　His mistress of the spring, his despot of the night.
　　There were other ladies in his court, three thousand of rare beauty,
　　But his favours to three thousand were concentered in one body.
　　By the time she was dressed in her Golden Chamber, it would be almost evening;
　　And when tables were cleared in the Tower of Jade, she would loiter, slow with wine.
　　Her sisters and her brothers all were given titles;
　　And, because she so illumined and glorified her clan,
　　She brought to every father, every mother through the empire,
　　Happiness when a girl was born rather than a boy.
　　...High rose Li Palace, entering blue clouds,
　　And far and wide the breezes carried magical notes
　　Of soft song and slow dance, of string and bamboo music.
　　The Emperor's eyes could never gaze on her enough-
　　Till war-drums, booming from Yuyang, shocked the whole earth
　　And broke the tunes of The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.
　　The Forbidden City, the nine-tiered palace, loomed in the dust
　　From thousands of horses and chariots headed southwest.
　　The imperial flag opened the way, now moving and now pausing- -
　　But thirty miles from the capital, beyond the western gate,
　　The men of the army stopped, not one of them would stir
　　Till under their horses' hoofs they might trample those moth- eyebrows....
　　Flowery hairpins fell to the ground, no one picked them up,
　　And a green and white jade hair-tassel and a yellowgold hair- bird.
　　The Emperor could not save her, he could only cover his face.
　　And later when he turned to look, the place of blood and tears
　　Was hidden in a yellow dust blown by a cold wind.
　　... At the cleft of the Dagger-Tower Trail they crisscrossed through a cloud-line
　　Under Omei Mountain. The last few came.
　　Flags and banners lost their colour in the fading sunlight....
　　But as waters of Shu are always green and its mountains always blue,
　　So changeless was His Majesty's love and deeper than the days.
　　He stared at the desolate moon from his temporary palace.
　　He heard bell-notes in the evening rain, cutting at his breast.
　　And when heaven and earth resumed their round and the dragon car faced home,
　　The Emperor clung to the spot and would not turn away
　　From the soil along the Mawei slope, under which was buried
　　That memory, that anguish. Where was her jade-white face?
　　Ruler and lords, when eyes would meet, wept upon their coats
　　As they rode, with loose rein, slowly eastward, back to the capital.
　　...The pools, the gardens, the palace, all were just as before,
　　The Lake Taiye hibiscus, the Weiyang Palace willows;
　　But a petal was like her face and a willow-leaf her eyebrow –
　　And what could he do but cry whenever he looked at them?
　　...Peach-trees and plum-trees blossomed, in the winds of spring;
　　Lakka-foliage fell to the ground, after autumn rains;
　　The Western and Southern Palaces were littered with late grasses,
　　And the steps were mounded with red leaves that no one swept away.
　　Her Pear-Garden Players became white-haired
　　And the eunuchs thin-eyebrowed in her Court of PepperTrees;
　　Over the throne flew fire-flies, while he brooded in the twilight.
　　He would lengthen the lamp-wick to its end and still could never sleep.
　　Bell and drum would slowly toll the dragging nighthours
　　And the River of Stars grow sharp in the sky, just before dawn,
　　And the porcelain mandarin-ducks on the roof grow thick with morning frost
　　And his covers of kingfisher-blue feel lonelier and colder
　　With the distance between life and death year after year;
　　And yet no beloved spirit ever visited his dreams.
　　...At Lingqiong lived a Taoist priest who was a guest of heaven,
　　Able to summon spirits by his concentrated mind.
　　And people were so moved by the Emperor's constant brooding
　　That they besought the Taoist priest to see if he could find her.
　　He opened his way in space and clove the ether like lightning,
　　Up to heaven, under the earth, looking everywhere.
　　Above, he searched the Green Void, below, the Yellow Spring;
　　But he failed, in either place, to find the one he looked for.
　　And then he heard accounts of an enchanted isle at sea,
　　A part of the intangible and incorporeal world,
　　With pavilions and fine towers in the five-coloured air,
　　And of exquisite immortals moving to and fro,
　　And of one among them-whom they called The Ever True-
　　With a face of snow and flowers resembling hers he sought.
　　So he went to the West Hall's gate of gold and knocked at the jasper door
　　And asked a girl, called Morsel-of-Jade, to tell The Doubly- Perfect.
　　And the lady, at news of an envoy from the Emperor of China,
　　Was startled out of dreams in her nine-flowered, canopy.
　　She pushed aside her pillow, dressed, shook away sleep,
　　And opened the pearly shade and then the silver screen.
　　Her cloudy hair-dress hung on one side because of her great haste,
　　And her flower-cap was loose when she came along the terrace,
　　While a light wind filled her cloak and fluttered with her motion
　　As though she danced The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.
　　And the tear-drops drifting down her sad white face
　　Were like a rain in spring on the blossom of the pear.
　　But love glowed deep within her eyes when she bade him thank her liege,
　　Whose form and voice had been strange to her ever since their parting –
　　Since happiness had ended at the Court of the Bright Sun,
　　And moons and dawns had become long in Fairy-Mountain Palace.
　　But when she turned her face and looked down toward the earth
　　And tried to see the capital, there were only fog and dust.
　　So she took out, with emotion, the pledges he had given
　　And, through his envoy, sent him back a shell box and gold hairpin,
　　But kept one branch of the hairpin and one side of the box,
　　Breaking the gold of the hairpin, breaking the shell of the box;
　　"Our souls belong together," she said, " like this gold and this shell –
　　Somewhere, sometime, on earth or in heaven, we shall surely
　　And she sent him, by his messenger, a sentence reminding him
　　Of vows which had been known only to their two hearts:
　　"On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,
　　We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world
　　That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,
　　And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree."
　　Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,
　　While this unending sorrow goes on and on for ever.

　　淚濕羅巾夢不成，夜深前殿按歌聲。
　　紅顔未老恩先斷，斜倚熏籠坐到明。

　　Her tears are spent, but no dreams come.
　　She can hear the others singing through the night.
　　She has lost his love. Alone with her beauty,
　　She leans till dawn on her incense-pillow.
　　
　　
　　2) Palace Plaint
　　Tr. Xu Yuan-zhong
　　
　　Her kerchief soak'd with tears, she cannot fall asleep,
　　When songs and beats of drums waft though the night is deep.
　　Her rosy face outlasts the favor of the king,
　　She leans on her perfumed bed till morning birds sing.

　　緑蟻新醅酒，紅泥小火爐。
　　晚來天欲雪，能飲一杯無？

　　There's a gleam of green in an old bottle,
　　There's a stir of red in the quiet stove,
　　There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside –
　　What about a cup of wine inside?

　　離離原上草，一歲一枯榮。
　　野火燒不盡，春風吹又生。
　　遠芳侵古道，晴翠接荒城。
　　又送王孫去，萋萋滿別情。

　　Boundless grasses over the plain
　　Come and go with every season;
　　Wildfire never quite consumes them –
　　They are tall once more in the spring wind.
　　Sweet they press on the old high- road
　　And reach the crumbling city-gate....
　　O Prince of Friends, you are gone again....
　　I hear them sighing after you.
　　
　　French version:
　　L'herbe
　　Fra?che et jolie, voilà l'herbe nouvelle qui cro?t partout dans la campagne;
　　Chaque année la voit dispara?tre, chaque année la voit revenir.
　　Le feu la dévore à l'automne, sans épuiser en elle le germe de la vie;
　　Que le souffle du printemps renaisse, elle rena?t bient?t avec lui.
　　
　　Sa verdure vigoureuse envahit peu à peu le vieux chemin,
　　Ondulant par un beau soleil, jusqu'aux murs de la ville en ruines.
　　L'herbe s'est flétrie, l'herbe a repoussé, depuis que mon seigneur est parti;
　　Hélas! en la voyant si verte, j'ai le c?ur assailli de bien cruels souvenirs.

　　蘭葉春葳蕤，桂華秋皎潔。
　　欣欣此生意，自爾為佳節。
　　誰知林棲者，聞風坐相悅。
　　草木有本心，何求美人折？

　　Tender orchid-leaves in spring
　　And cinnamon- blossoms bright in autumn
　　Are as self- contained as life is,
　　Which conforms them to the seasons.
　　Yet why will you think that a forest-hermit,
　　Allured by sweet winds and contented with beauty,
　　Would no more ask to-be transplanted
　　THan Would any other natural flower?

　　朱雀橋邊野草花，烏衣巷口夕陽斜。
　　舊時王謝堂前燕，飛入尋常百姓傢。

　　Grass has run wild now by the Bridge of Red-Birds;
　　And swallows' wings, at sunset, in Blacktail Row
　　Where once they visited great homes,
　　Dip among doorways of the poor.
　　
　　
　　2) The Street of Mansions
　　Translated by Xu Yuan-zhong
　　
　　By the Bridge of Red Birds rank grasses overgrow;
　　O'er the Street of Mansions the setting sun hangs low.
　　Swallows which skimmed by painted eaves in bygone days
　　are now dipping among common people's doorways.

　　新妝宜面下朱樓，深鎖春光一院愁。
　　行到中庭數花朵，蜻蜓飛上玉搔頭。

　　In gala robes she comes down from her chamber
　　Into her courtyard, enclosure of spring....
　　When she tries from the centre to count the flowers,
　　On her hairpin of jade a dragon-fly poises.
　　
　　
　　2) A Song of Spring
　　Tr. Xu Yuan-Zhong
　　
　　She comes downstairs in a new dress becoming her face,
　　When locked up, e'en spring looks sad in this lonly place.
　　She counts up flowers in mid-court while passing by,
　　On her lovely hair-pin alights a dragon-fly.

　　王瀎樓船下益州，金陵王氣黯然收。
　　千尋鐵鎖沉江底，一片降幡出石頭。
　　人世幾回傷往事，山形依舊枕寒流。
　　今逢四海為傢日，故壘蕭蕭蘆荻秋。

　　Since Wang Jun brought his towering ships down from Yizhou,
　　The royal ghost has pined in the city of Nanjing.
　　Ten thousand feet of iron chain were sunk here to the bottom –
　　And then came the flag of surrender on the Wall of Stone....
　　Cycles of change have moved into the past,
　　While still this mountain dignity has commanded the cold river;
　　And now comes the day of the Chinese world united,
　　And the old forts fill with ruin and with autumn reeds.

　　天地英雄氣，千秋尚凜然。
　　勢分三足鼎，業復五銖錢。
　　得相能開國，生兒不象賢。
　　凄涼蜀故妓，來舞魏宮前。

　　Even in this world the spirit of a hero
　　Lives and reigns for thousands of years.
　　You were the firmest of the pot's three legs;
　　It was you who maintained the honour of the currency;
　　You chose a great premier to magnify your kingdom....
　　And yet you had a son so little like his father
　　That girls of your country were taken captive
　　To dance in the palace of the King of Wei.

　　搖落深知宋玉悲，風流儒雅亦吾師。
　　悵望千秋一灑淚，蕭條異代不同時。
　　江山故宅空文藻，雲雨荒臺豈夢思。
　　最是楚宮俱泯滅，舟人指點到今疑。

　　"Decay and decline": deep knowledge have I of Sung Yu's grief.
　　Romantic and refined, he too is my teacher.
　　Sadly looking across a thousand autumns, one shower of tears,
　　Melancholy in different epochs, not at the same time.
　　Among rivers and mountains his old abode – empty his writings;
　　Deserted terrace of cloud and rain – surely not just imagined in a dream?
　　Utterly the palaces of Chu are all destroyed and ruined,
　　The fishermen pointing them out today are unsure.

　　蜀相祠堂何處尋，
　　錦官城外柏森森。
　　映階碧草自春色，
　　隔葉黃鸝空好音。
　　三顧頻煩天下計，
　　兩朝開濟老臣心。
　　出師未捷身先死，
　　長使英雄淚滿襟。

　　Where is the temple of the famous Premier? –
　　In a deep pine grove near the City of Silk,
　　With the green grass of spring colouring the steps,
　　And birds chirping happily under the leaves.
　　...The third summons weighted him with affairs of state
　　And to two generations he gave his true heart,
　　But before he could conquer, he was dead;
　　And heroes have wept on their coats ever since.

　　岱宗夫如何？齊魯青未了。
　　造化鐘神秀，陰陽割昏曉。
　　蕩胸生層雲，决眥入歸鳥。
　　會當凌絶頂，一覽衆山小。

　　What shall I say of the Great Peak? --
　　The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green,
　　Inspired and stirred by the breath of creation,
　　With the Twin Forces balancing day and night.
　　...I bare my breast toward opening clouds,
　　I strain my sight after birds flying home.
　　When shall I reach the top and hold
　　All mountains in a single glance?

　　花近高樓傷客心，萬方多難此登臨。
　　錦江春色來天地，玉壘浮雲變古今。
　　北極朝廷終不改，西山寇盜莫相侵。
　　可憐後主還祠廟，日暮聊為梁父吟。

　　Flowers, as high as my window, hurt the heart of a wanderer
　　For I see, from this high vantage, sadness everywhere.
　　The Silken River, bright with spring, floats between earth and heaven
　　Like a line of cloud by the Jade Peak, between ancient days and now.
　　...Though the State is established for a while as firm as the North Star
　　And bandits dare not venture from the western hills,
　　Yet sorry in the twilight for the woes of a longvanished Emperor,
　　I am singing the song his Premier sang when still unestranged from the mountain.

　　昔聞洞庭水，今上嶽陽樓。
　　吳楚東南坼，乾坤日夜浮。
　　親朋無一字，老病有孤舟。
　　戎馬關山北，憑軒涕泗流。

　　I had always heard of Lake Dongting –
　　And now at last I have climbed to this tower.
　　With Wu country to the east of me and Chu to the south,
　　I can see heaven and earth endlessly floating.
　　...But no word has reached me from kin or friends.
　　I am old and sick and alone with my boat.
　　North of this wall there are wars and mountains –
　　And here by the rail how can I help crying?

　　將軍魏武之子孫，於今為庶為清門。
　　英雄割據雖已矣，文彩風流今尚存。
　　學書初學衛夫人，但恨無過王右軍。
　　丹青不知老將至，富貴於我如浮雲。
　　開元之中常引見，承恩數上南薫殿。
　　凌煙功臣少顔色，將軍下筆開生面。
　　良相頭上進賢冠，猛將腰間大羽箭。
　　褒公鄂公毛發動，英姿颯爽猶酣戰。
　　先帝玉馬玉花驄，畫工如山貌不同。
　　是日牽來赤墀下，迥立閶闔生長風。
　　詔謂將軍拂絹素，意匠慘淡經營中。
　　斯須九重真竜出，一洗萬古凡馬空。
　　玉花卻在禦榻上，榻上庭前屹相嚮。
　　至尊含笑催賜金，圉人太僕皆惆悵。
　　弟子韓幹早入室，亦能畫馬窮殊相。
　　幹惟畫肉不畫骨，忍使驊騮氣凋喪。
　　將軍畫善蓋有神，偶逢佳士亦寫真。
　　即今漂泊幹戈際，屢貌尋常行路人。
　　途窮反遭俗眼白，世上未有如公貧。
　　但看古來盛名下，終日坎壈纏其身。

　　O General, descended from Wei's Emperor Wu,
　　You are nobler now than when a noble....
　　Conquerors and their velour perish,
　　But masters of beauty live forever.
　　...With your brush-work learned from Lady Wei
　　And second only to Wang Xizhi's,
　　Faithful to your art, you know no age,
　　Letting wealth and fame drift by like clouds.
　　...In the years of Kaiyuan you were much with the Emperor,
　　Accompanied him often to the Court of the South Wind.
　　When the spirit left great statesmen, on walls of the Hall of Fame
　　The point of your brush preserved their living faces.
　　You crowned all the premiers with coronets of office;
　　You fitted all commanders with arrows at their girdles;
　　You made the founders of this dynasty, with every hair alive,
　　Seem to be just back from the fierceness of a battle.
　　...The late Emperor had a horse, known as Jade Flower,
　　Whom artists had copied in various poses.
　　They led him one day to the red marble stairs
　　With his eyes toward the palace in the deepening air.
　　Then, General, commanded to proceed with your work,
　　You centred all your being on a piece of silk.
　　And later, when your dragon-horse, born of the sky,
　　Had banished earthly horses for ten thousand generations,
　　There was one Jade Flower standing on the dais
　　And another by the steps, and they marvelled at each other....
　　The Emperor rewarded you with smiles and with gifts,
　　While officers and men of the stud hung about and stared.
　　...Han Gan, your follower, has likewise grown proficient
　　At representing horses in all their attitudes;
　　But picturing the flesh, he fails to draw the bone-
　　So that even the finest are deprived of their spirit.
　　You, beyond the mere skill, used your art divinely-
　　And expressed, not only horses, but the life of a good man....
　　Yet here you are, wandering in a world of disorder
　　And sketching from time to time some petty passerby
　　People note your case with the whites of their eyes.
　　There's nobody purer, there's nobody poorer.
　　...Read in the records, from earliest times,
　　How hard it is to be a great artist.

　　岐王宅裏尋常見，崔九堂前幾度聞。
　　正是江南好風景，落花時節又逢君。

　　I met you often when you were visiting princes
　　And when you were playing in noblemen's halls.
　　...Spring passes.... Far down the river now,
　　I find you alone under falling petals.

　　戌鼓斷人行，秋邊一雁聲。
　　露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。
　　有弟皆分散，無傢問死生。
　　寄書長不達，況乃未休兵。

　　A wanderer hears drums portending battle.
　　By the first call of autumn from a wildgoose at the border,
　　He knows that the dews tonight will be frost.
　　...How much brighter the moonlight is at home!
　　O my brothers, lost and scattered,
　　What is life to me without you?
　　Yet if missives in time of peace go wrong –
　　What can I hope for during war?

　　白日依山盡，黃河入海流。
　　欲窮千裏目，更上一層樓。

　　Mountains cover the white sun,
　　And oceans drain the golden river;
　　But you widen your view three hundred miles
　　By going up one flight of stairs.

　　山光忽西落，池月漸東上。
　　散發乘夕涼，開軒臥閑敞。
　　荷風送香氣，竹露滴清響。
　　欲取鳴琴彈，恨無知音賞。
　　感此懷故人，中宵勞夢想。

　　The mountain-light suddenly fails in the west,
　　In the east from the lake the slow moon rises.
　　I loosen my hair to enjoy the evening coolness
　　And open my window and lie down in peace.
　　The wind brings me odours of lotuses,
　　And bamboo-leaves drip with a music of dew....
　　I would take up my lute and I would play,
　　But, alas, who here would understand?
　　And so I think of you, old friend,
　　O troubler of my midnight dreams!

　　白日登山望烽火，黃昏飲馬傍交河。
　　行人刁鬥風沙暗，公主琵琶幽怨多。
　　野營萬裏無城郭，雨雪紛紛連大漠。
　　鬍雁哀鳴夜夜飛，鬍兒眼淚雙雙落。
　　聞道玉門猶被遮，應將性命逐輕車。
　　年年戰骨埋荒處，空見蒲桃入漢傢。

　　Through the bright day up the mountain, we scan the sky for a war-torch;
　　At yellow dusk we water our horses in the boundaryriver;
　　And when the throb of watch-drums hangs in the sandy wind,
　　We hear the guitar of the Chinese Princess telling her endless woe....
　　Three thousand miles without a town, nothing but camps,
　　Till the heavy sky joins the wide desert in snow.
　　With their plaintive calls, barbarian wildgeese fly from night to night,
　　
　　And children of the Tartars have many tears to shed;
　　But we hear that the Jade Pass is still under siege,
　　And soon we stake our lives upon our light warchariots.
　　Each year we bury in the desert bones unnumbered,
　　Yet we only watch for grape-vines coming into China.

　　燕臺一去客心驚，笳鼓喧喧漢將營。
　　萬裏寒光生積雪，三邊曙色動危旌。
　　沙場烽火連鬍月，海畔雲山擁薊城。
　　少小雖非投筆吏，論功還欲請長纓。

　　My heart sank when I headed north from Yan Country
　　To the camps of China echoing ith bugle and drum.
　　...In an endless cold light of massive snow,
　　Tall flags on three borders rise up like a dawn.
　　War-torches invade the barbarian moonlight,
　　Mountain-clouds like chairmen bear the Great Wall from the sea.
　　...Though no youthful clerk meant to be a great general,
　　I throw aside my writing-brush –
　　Like the student who tossed off cap for a lariat,
　　I challenge what may come.