036

乐府

王昌龄

塞上曲

蝉鸣空桑林， 八月萧关道；
出塞复入塞， 处处黄芦草。
从来幽并客， 皆向沙场老；
莫学游侠儿， 矜夸紫骝好。

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

乐府

王昌龄

塞下曲

饮马渡秋水， 水寒风似刀。
平沙日未没， 黯黯见临洮。
昔日长城战， 咸言意气高；
黄尘足今古， 白骨乱蓬蒿。

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

乐府

李白

关山月

明月出天山， 苍茫云海间；
长风几万里， 吹度玉门关。
汉下白登道， 胡窥青海湾。
由来征战地， 不见有人还。
戍客望边色， 思归多苦颜；
高楼当此夜， 叹息未应闲。

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

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌 春歌

秦地罗敷女， 采桑绿水边。
素手青条上， 红妆白日鲜。
蚕饥妾欲去， 五马莫留连。

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

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌 夏歌

镜湖三百里， 菡萏发荷花。
五月西施采， 人看隘若耶。
回舟不待月， 归去越王家。

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

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌 秋歌

长安一片月， 万户捣衣声；
秋风吹不尽， 总是玉关情。
何日平胡虏？ 良人罢远征。

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

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌 冬歌

明朝驿使发， 一夜絮征袍。
素手抽针冷， 那堪把剪刀。
裁缝寄远道， 几日到临洮。

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

乐府

李白

长干行

妾发初覆额， 折花门前剧；
郎骑竹马来， 绕床弄青梅。
同居长干里， 两小无嫌猜。
十四为君妇， 羞颜未尝开；
低头向暗壁， 千唤不一回，
十五始展眉， 愿同尘与灰；
常存抱柱信， 岂上望夫台？
十六君远行， 瞿塘滟滪堆；
五月不可触， 猿鸣天上哀。
门前迟行迹， 一一生绿苔；
苔深不能扫， 落叶秋风早。
八月蝴蝶来， 双飞西园草。
感此伤妾心， 坐愁红颜老。
早晚下三巴， 预将书报家；
相迎不道远， 直至长风沙。

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

乐府

孟郊

烈女操

梧桐相待老， 鸳鸯会双死；
贞妇贵殉夫， 舍生亦如此。
波澜誓不起， 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

乐府

孟郊

游子吟

慈母手中线， 游子身上衣；
临行密密缝， 意恐迟迟归。
谁言寸草心， 报得三春辉？

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?