036

樂府

王昌齡

塞上曲

蟬鳴空桑林， 八月蕭關道；
出塞复入塞， 處處黃蘆草。
從來幽并客， 皆向沙場老；
莫學游俠儿， 矜夸紫騮好。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

AT A BORDER-FORTRESS

Cicadas complain of thin mulberry-trees
In the Eighth-month chill at the frontier pass.
Through the gate and back again, all along the road,
There is nothing anywhere but yellow reeds and grasses
And the bones of soldiers from You and from Bing
Who have buried their lives in the dusty sand.
...Let never a cavalier stir you to envy
With boasts of his horse and his horsemanship

037

樂府

王昌齡

塞下曲

飲馬渡秋水， 水寒風似刀。
平沙日未沒， 黯黯見臨洮。
昔日長城戰， 咸言意气高；
黃塵足今古， 白骨亂蓬蒿。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

UNDER A BORDER-FORTRESS

Drink, my horse, while we cross the autumn water!-
The stream is cold and the wind like a sword,
As we watch against the sunset on the sandy plain,
Far, far away, shadowy Lingtao.
Old battles, waged by those long walls,
Once were proud on all men's tongues.
But antiquity now is a yellow dust,
Confusing in the grasses its ruins and white bones.

038

樂府

李白

關山月

明月出天山， 蒼茫云海間；
長風几万里， 吹度玉門關。
漢下白登道， 胡窺青海灣。
由來征戰地， 不見有人還。
戍客望邊色， 思歸多苦顏；
高樓當此夜， 歎息未應閒。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

THE MOON AT THE FORTIFIED PASS

The bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven
In an infinite haze of cloud and sea,
And the wind, that has come a thousand miles,
Beats at the Jade Pass battlements....
China marches its men down Baideng Road
While Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay....
And since not one battle famous in history
Sent all its fighters back again,
The soldiers turn round, looking toward the border,
And think of home, with wistful eyes,
And of those tonight in the upper chambers
Who toss and sigh and cannot rest.

039

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 春歌

秦地羅敷女， 采桑綠水邊。
素手青條上， 紅妝白日鮮。
蚕饑妾欲去， 五馬莫留連。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SPRING

The lovely Lo Fo of the western land
Plucks mulberry leaves by the waterside.
Across the green boughs stretches out her white hand;
In golden sunshine her rosy robe is dyed.
"my silkworms are hungry, I cannot stay.
Tarry not with your five-horse cab, I pray."

040

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 夏歌

鏡湖三百里， 菡萏發荷花。
五月西施采， 人看隘若耶。
回舟不待月， 歸去越王家。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SUMMER

On Mirror Lake outspread for miles and miles,
The lotus lilies in full blossom teem.
In fifth moon Xi Shi gathers them with smiles,
Watchers o'erwhelm the bank of Yuoye Stream.
Her boat turns back without waiting moonrise
To yoyal house amid amorous sighs.

041

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 秋歌

長安一片月， 万戶搗衣聲；
秋風吹不盡， 總是玉關情。
何日平胡虜？ 良人罷遠征。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF AN AUTUMN MIDNIGHT

A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....
Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered,
And my husband come back from the long campaign!

042

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 冬歌

明朝驛使發， 一夜絮征袍。
素手抽針冷， 那堪把剪刀。
裁縫寄遠道， 几日到臨洮。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: WINTER

The courier will depart next day, she's told.
She sews a warrior's gown all night.
Her fingers feel the needle cold.
How can she hold the scissors tight?
The work is done, she sends it far away.
When will it reach the town where warriors stay?

043

樂府

李白

長干行

妾發初覆額， 折花門前劇；
郎騎竹馬來， 繞床弄青梅。
同居長干里， 兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦， 羞顏未嘗開；
低頭向暗壁， 千喚不一回，
十五始展眉， 愿同塵与灰；
常存抱柱信， 豈上望夫台？
十六君遠行， 瞿塘灩澦堆；
五月不可触， 猿鳴天上哀。
門前遲行跡， 一一生綠苔；
苔深不能掃， 落葉秋風早。
八月蝴蝶來， 雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心， 坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴， 預將書報家；
相迎不道遠， 直至長風沙。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF CHANGGAN

My hair had hardly covered my forehead.
I was picking flowers, paying by my door,
When you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,
Came trotting in circles and throwing green plums.
We lived near together on a lane in Ch'ang-kan,
Both of us young and happy-hearted.
...At fourteen I became your wife,
So bashful that I dared not smile,
And I lowered my head toward a dark corner
And would not turn to your thousand calls;
But at fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed,
Learning that no dust could ever seal our love,
That even unto death I would await you by my post
And would never lose heart in the tower of silent watching.
...Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey
Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water.
And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,
And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky.
Your footprints by our door, where I had watched you go,
Were hidden, every one of them, under green moss,
Hidden under moss too deep to sweep away.
And the first autumn wind added fallen leaves.
And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies
Hover, two by two, in our west-garden grasses
And, because of all this, my heart is breaking
And I fear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade.
...Oh, at last, when you return through the three Pa districts,
Send me a message home ahead!
And I will come and meet you and will never mind the distance,
All the way to Chang-feng Sha.

044

樂府

孟郊

烈女操

梧桐相待老， 鴛鴦會雙死；
貞婦貴殉夫， 舍生亦如此。
波瀾誓不起， 妾心井中水。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A SONG OF A PURE-HEARTED GIRL

Lakka-trees ripen two by two
And mandarin-ducks die side by side.
If a true-hearted girl will love only her husband,
In a life as faithfully lived as theirs,
What troubling wave can arrive to vex
A spirit like water in a timeless well?

045

樂府

孟郊

游子吟

慈母手中線， 游子身上衣；
臨行密密縫， 意恐遲遲歸。
誰言寸草心， 報得三春輝？

Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A TRAVELLER'S SONG

The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother
Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;
Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,
Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.
But how much love has the inch-long grass
For three spring months of the light of the sun?