046

七言古诗

陈子昂

登幽州台歌

前不见古人， 后不见来者；
念天地之悠悠， 独怆然而涕下。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Chen Ziang

ON A GATE-TOWER AT YUZHOU

Where, before me, are the ages that have gone?
And where, behind me, are the coming generations?
I think of heaven and earth, without limit, without end,
And I am all alone and my tears fall down.

047

七言古诗

李颀

古意

男儿事长征， 少小幽燕客，
赌胜马蹄下， 由来轻七尺；
杀人莫敢前， 须如蝟毛磔。
黄云陇底白雪飞， 未得报恩不能归。
辽东小妇年十五， 惯弹琵琶解歌舞，
今为羌笛出塞声， 使我三军泪如雨。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

AN OLD AIR

There once was a man, sent on military missions,
A wanderer, from youth, on the You and Yan frontiers.
Under the horses' hoofs he would meet his foes
And, recklessly risking his seven-foot body,
Would slay whoever dared confront
Those moustaches that bristled like porcupinequills.
...There were dark clouds below the hills, there were white clouds above them,
But before a man has served full time, how can he go back?
In eastern Liao a girl was waiting, a girl of fifteen years,
Deft with a guitar, expert in dance and song.
...She seems to be fluting, even now, a reed-song of home,
Filling every soldier's eyes with homesick tears.

048

七言古诗

李颀

送陈章甫

四月南风大麦黄， 枣花未落桐叶长。
青山朝别暮还见， 嘶马出门思故乡。
陈侯立身何坦荡？ 虬须虎眉仍大颡。
腹中贮书一万卷， 不肯低头在草莽。
东门酤酒饮我曹， 心轻万事皆鸿毛，
醉卧不知白日暮， 有时空望孤云高。
长河浪头连天黑， 津口停舟渡不得；
郑国游人未及家， 洛阳行子空叹息。
闻道故林相识多， 罢官昨日今如何。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A FAREWELL TO MY FRIEND CHEN ZHANGFU

In the Fourth-month the south wind blows plains of yellow barley,
Date-flowers have not faded yet and lakka-leaves are long.
The green peak that we left at dawn we still can see at evening,
While our horses whinny on the road, eager to turn homeward.
...Chen, my friend, you have always been a great and good man,
With your dragon's moustache, tiger's eyebrows and your massive forehead.
In your bosom you have shelved away ten thousand volumes.
You have held your head high, never bowed it in the dust.
...After buying us wine and pledging us, here at the eastern gate,
And taking things as lightly as a wildgoose feather,
Flat you lie, tipsy, forgetting the white sun;
But now and then you open your eyes and gaze at a high lone cloud.
...The tide-head of the lone river joins the darkening sky.
The ferryman beaches his boat. It has grown too late to sail.
And people on their way from Cheng cannot go home,
And people from Loyang sigh with disappointment.
...I have heard about the many friends around your wood land dwelling.
Yesterday you were dismissed. Are they your friends today?

049

七言古诗

李颀

琴歌

主人有酒欢今夕， 请奏鸣琴广陵客。
月照城头乌半飞， 霜凄万树风入衣；
铜炉华烛烛增辉， 初弹渌水后楚妃。
一声已动物皆静， 四座无言星欲稀。
清淮奉使千余里， 敢告云山从此始。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A LUTE SONG

Our host, providing abundant wine to make the night mellow,
Asks his guest from Yangzhou to play for us on the lute.
Toward the moon that whitens the city-wall, black crows are flying,
Frost is on ten thousand trees, and the wind blows through our clothes;
But a copper stove has added its light to that of flowery candles,
And the lute plays The Green Water, and then The Queen of Chu.
Once it has begun to play, there is no other sound:
A spell is on the banquet, while the stars grow thin....
But three hundred miles from here, in Huai, official duties await him,
And so it's farewell, and the road again, under cloudy mountains.

050

七言古诗

李颀

听董大弹胡笳声兼寄语弄房给事

蔡女昔造胡笳声， 一弹一十有八拍。
胡人落泪沾边草， 汉使断肠对归客。
古戍苍苍烽火寒， 大荒沈沈飞雪白。
先拂声弦后角羽， 四郊秋叶惊摵摵。
董夫子，通神明， 深山窃听来妖精。
言迟更速皆应手， 将往复旋如有情。
空山百鸟散还合， 万里浮云阴且晴。
嘶酸雏雁失群夜， 断绝胡儿恋母声。
川为静其波， 鸟亦罢其鸣；
乌孙部落家乡远， 逻娑沙尘哀怨生。
幽音变调忽飘洒， 长风吹林雨堕瓦；
迸泉飒飒飞木末， 野鹿呦呦走堂下。
长安城连东掖垣， 凤凰池对青琐门，
高才脱略名与利， 日夕望君抱琴至。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING DONG PLAY THE FLAGEOLET
A POEM TO PALACE-ATTENDANT FANG

When this melody for the flageolet was made by Lady Cai,
When long ago one by one she sang its eighteen stanzas,
Even the Tartars were shedding tears into the border grasses,
And the envoy of China was heart-broken, turning back home with his escort.
...Cold fires now of old battles are grey on ancient forts,
And the wilderness is shadowed with white new-flying snow.
...When the player first brushes the Shang string and the Jue and then the Yu,
Autumn-leaves in all four quarters are shaken with a murmur.
Dong, the master,
Must have been taught in heaven.
Demons come from the deep pine-wood and stealthily listen
To music slow, then quick, following his hand,
Now far away, now near again, according to his heart.
A hundred birds from an empty mountain scatter and return;
Three thousand miles of floating clouds darken and lighten;
A wildgoose fledgling, left behind, cries for its flock,
And a Tartar child for the mother he loves.
Then river waves are calmed
And birds are mute that were singing,
And Wuzu tribes are homesick for their distant land,
And out of the dust of Siberian steppes rises a plaintive sorrow.
...Suddenly the low sound leaps to a freer tune,
Like a long wind swaying a forest, a downpour breaking tiles,
A cascade through the air, flying over tree-tops.
...A wild deer calls to his fellows. He is running among the mansions
In the corner of the capital by the Eastern Palace wall....
Phoenix Lake lies opposite the Gate of Green Jade;
But how can fame and profit concern a man of genius?
Day and night I long for him to bring his lute again.

051

七言古诗

李颀

听安万善吹觱篥歌

南山截竹为觱篥， 此乐本自龟兹出。
流传汉地曲转奇， 凉州胡人为我吹；
傍邻闻者多叹息， 远客思乡皆泪垂。
世人解听不解赏， 长飙风中自来往。
枯桑老柏寒飕飗， 九雏鸣凤乱啾啾。
龙吟虎啸一时发， 万籁百泉相与秋。
忽然更作渔阳掺， 黄云萧条白日暗。
变调如闻杨柳春， 上林繁花照眼新。
岁夜高堂列明烛， 美酒一杯声一曲。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING AN WANSHAN PLAY THE REED-PIPE

Bamboo from the southern hills was used to make this pipe.
And its music, that was introduced from Persia first of all,
Has taken on new magic through later use in China.
And now the Tartar from Liangzhou, blowing it for me,
Drawing a sigh from whosoever hears it,
Is bringing to a wanderer's eyes homesick tears....
Many like to listen; but few understand.
To and fro at will there's a long wind flying,
Dry mulberry-trees, old cypresses, trembling in its chill.
There are nine baby phoenixes, outcrying one another;
A dragon and a tiger spring up at the same moment;
Then in a hundred waterfalls ten thousand songs of autumn
Are suddenly changing to The Yuyang Lament;
And when yellow clouds grow thin and the white sun darkens,
They are changing still again to Spring in the Willow Trees.
Like Imperial Garden flowers, brightening the eye with beauty,
Are the high-hall candles we have lighted this cold night,
And with every cup of wine goes another round of music.

052

七言古诗

孟浩然

夜归鹿门山歌

山寺钟鸣昼已昏， 渔梁渡头争渡喧；
人随沙路向江村， 余亦乘舟归鹿门。
鹿门月照开烟树， 忽到庞公栖隐处；
岩扉松径长寂寥， 惟有幽人自来去。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

RETURNING AT NIGHT TO LUMEN MOUNTAIN

A bell in the mountain-temple sounds the coming of night.
I hear people at the fishing-town stumble aboard the ferry,
While others follow the sand-bank to their homes along the river.
...I also take a boat and am bound for Lumen Mountain --
And soon the Lumen moonlight is piercing misty trees.
I have come, before I know it, upon an ancient hermitage,
The thatch door, the piney path, the solitude, the quiet,
Where a hermit lives and moves, never needing a companion.

053

七言古诗

李白

庐山谣寄卢侍御虚舟

我本楚狂人， 凤歌笑孔丘。
手持绿玉杖， 朝别黄鹤楼；
五岳寻仙不辞远， 一生好入名山游。
庐山秀出南斗傍， 屏风九叠云锦张；
影落明湖青黛光， 金阙前开二峰长。
银河倒挂三石梁， 香炉瀑布遥相望。
回崖沓障淩苍苍， 翠影红霞映朝日，
鸟飞不到吴天长。
登高壮观天地间， 大江茫茫去不黄。
黄云万里动风色， 白波九道流雪山。
好为庐山谣， 兴因庐山发。
闲窥石镜清我心， 谢公行处苍苔没。
早服还丹无世情， 琴心三叠道初成；
遥见仙人彩云里， 手把芙蓉朝玉京。
先期汗漫九垓上， 愿接卢敖游太清。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF LU MOUNTAIN TO CENSOR LU XUZHOU

I am the madman of the Chu country
Who sang a mad song disputing Confucius.
...Holding in my hand a staff of green jade,
I have crossed, since morning at the Yellow Crane Terrace,
All five Holy Mountains, without a thought of distance,
According to the one constant habit of my life.
Lu Mountain stands beside the Southern Dipper
In clouds reaching silken like a nine-panelled screen,
With its shadows in a crystal lake deepening the green water.
The Golden Gate opens into two mountain-ranges.
A silver stream is hanging down to three stone bridges
Within sight of the mighty Tripod Falls.
Ledges of cliff and winding trails lead to blue sky
And a flush of cloud in the morning sun,
Whence no flight of birds could be blown into Wu.
...I climb to the top. I survey the whole world.
I see the long river that runs beyond return,
Yellow clouds that winds have driven hundreds of miles
And a snow-peak whitely circled by the swirl of a ninefold stream.
And so I am singing a song of Lu Mountain,
A song that is born of the breath of Lu Mountain.
...Where the Stone Mirror makes the heart's purity purer
And green moss has buried the footsteps of Xie,
I have eaten the immortal pellet and, rid of the world's troubles,
Before the lute's third playing have achieved my element.
Far away I watch the angels riding coloured clouds
Toward heaven's Jade City, with hibiscus in their hands.
And so, when I have traversed the nine sections of the world,
I will follow Saint Luao up the Great Purity.

054

七言古诗

李白

梦游天姥吟留别

海客谈瀛洲， 烟涛微茫信难求。
越人语天姥， 云霓明灭或可睹。
天姥连天向天横， 势拔五岳掩赤城；
天台四万八千丈， 对此欲倒东南倾。
我欲因之梦吴越， 一夜飞渡镜湖月。
湖月照我影， 送我至剡溪；
谢公宿处今尚在， 渌水荡漾清猿啼。
脚著谢公屐， 身登青云梯。
半壁见海日， 空中闻天鸡。
千岩万壑路不定， 迷花倚石忽已暝。
熊咆龙吟殷岩泉， 栗深林兮惊层巅。
云青青兮欲雨， 水澹澹兮生烟。
列缺霹雳， 邱峦崩摧，
洞天石扇， 訇然中开；
青冥浩荡不见底， 日月照耀金银台。
霓为衣兮风为马， 云之君兮纷纷而来下；
虎鼓瑟兮鸾回车。 仙之人兮列如麻。
忽魂悸以魄动， 怳惊起而长嗟。
惟觉时之枕席， 失向来之烟霞。
世间行乐亦如此， 古来万事东流水。
别君去兮何时还？ 且放白鹿青崖间。
须行即骑访名山， 安能摧眉折腰事权贵，
使我不得开心颜？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

TIANMU MOUNTAIN ASCENDED IN A DREAM

A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,
Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;
But Yueh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,
Still seen through its varying deeps of cloud.
In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,
Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through China
With the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,
Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.
...My heart and my dreams are in Wu and Yueh
And they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.
And the moon lights my shadow
And me to Yan River --
With the hermitage of Xie still there
And the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.
I wear his pegged boots
Up a ladder of blue cloud,
Sunny ocean half-way,
Holy cock-crow in space,
Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road.
Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.
Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,
Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.
Clouds darken with darkness of rain,
Streams pale with pallor of mist.
The Gods of Thunder and Lightning
Shatter the whole range.
The stone gate breaks asunder
Venting in the pit of heaven,
An impenetrable shadow.
...But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,
And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,
Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,
With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers.
Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures.
I move, my soul goes flying,
I wake with a long sigh,
My pillow and my matting
Are the lost clouds I was in.
...And this is the way it always is with human joy:
Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.
And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.
...But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deer
And ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.
Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office
Who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!

055

七言古诗

李白

金陵酒肆留别

风吹柳花满店香， 吴姬压酒唤客尝；
金陵子弟来相送， 欲行不行各尽觞。
请君试问东流水， 别意与之谁短长？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

PARTING AT A WINE-SHOP IN NANJING

A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,
And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it
With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;
And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,
Oh, go and ask this river running to the east
If it can travel farther than a friend's love!

056

七言古诗

李白

宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云

弃我去者， 昨日之日不可留；
乱我心者， 今日之日多烦忧。
长风万里送秋雁， 对此可以酣高楼。
蓬莱文章建安骨， 中间小谢又清发，
俱怀逸兴壮思飞， 欲上青天览明月。
抽刀断水水更流， 举杯销愁愁更愁。
人生在世不称意， 明朝散发弄扁舟。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A FAREWELL TO SECRETARY SHUYUN
AT THE XIETIAO VILLA IN XUANZHOU

Since yesterday had to throw me and bolt,
Today has hurt my heart even more.
The autumn wildgeese have a long wind for escort
As I face them from this villa, drinking my wine.
The bones of great writers are your brushes, in the School of Heaven,
And I am a Lesser Xie growing up by your side.
We both are exalted to distant thought,
Aspiring to the sky and the bright moon.
But since water still flows, though we cut it with our swords,
And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishingboat.

057

七言古诗

岑参

走马川行奉送封大夫出师西征

君不见走马川行雪海边， 平沙莽莽黄入天。
轮台九月风夜吼， 一川碎石大如斗，
随风满地石乱走。 匈奴草黄马正肥，
金山西见烟尘飞， 汉家大将西出师。
将军金甲夜不脱， 半夜军行戈相拨，
风头如刀面如割。 马毛带雪汗气蒸，
五花连钱旋作冰， 幕中草檄砚水凝。
虏骑闻之应胆慑， 料知短兵不敢接，
车师西门伫献捷。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF RUNNING-HORSE RIVER IN FAREWELL
TO GENERAL FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

Look how swift to the snowy sea races Running-Horse River! --
And sand, up from the desert, flies yellow into heaven.
This Ninth-month night is blowing cold at Wheel Tower,
And valleys, like peck measures, fill with the broken boulders
That downward, headlong, follow the wind.
...In spite of grey grasses, Tartar horses are plump;
West of the Hill of Gold, smoke and dust gather.
O General of the Chinese troops, start your campaign!
Keep your iron armour on all night long,
Send your soldiers forward with a clattering of weapons!
...While the sharp wind's point cuts the face like a knife,
And snowy sweat steams on the horses' backs,
Freezing a pattern of five-flower coins,
Your challenge from camp, from an inkstand of ice,
Has chilled the barbarian chieftain's heart.
You will have no more need of an actual battle! --
We await the news of victory, here at the western pass!

058

七言古诗

岑参

轮台歌奉送封大夫出师西征

轮台城头夜吹角， 轮台城北旄头落。
羽书昨夜过渠黎， 单于已在金山西。
戍楼西望烟尘黑， 汉兵屯在轮台北。
上将拥旄西出征， 平明吹笛大军行。
四边伐鼓雪海涌， 三军大呼阴山动。
虏塞兵气连云屯， 战场白骨缠草根。
剑河风急雪片阔， 沙口石冻马蹄脱。
亚相勤王甘苦辛， 誓将报主静边尘。
古来青史谁不见？ 今见功名胜古人。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHEEL TOWER IN FAREWELL TO GENERAL
FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

On Wheel Tower parapets night-bugles are blowing,
Though the flag at the northern end hangs limp.
Scouts, in the darkness, are passing Quli,
Where, west of the Hill of Gold, the Tartar chieftain has halted
We can see, from the look-out, the dust and black smoke
Where Chinese troops are camping, north of Wheel Tower.
...Our flags now beckon the General farther west-
With bugles in the dawn he rouses his Grand Army;
Drums like a tempest pound on four sides
And the Yin Mountains shake with the shouts of ten thousand;
Clouds and the war-wind whirl up in a point
Over fields where grass-roots will tighten around white bones;
In the Dagger River mist, through a biting wind,
Horseshoes, at the Sand Mouth line, break on icy boulders.
...Our General endures every pain, every hardship,
Commanded to settle the dust along the border.
We have read, in the Green Books, tales of old days-
But here we behold a living man, mightier than the dead.

059

七言古诗

岑参

白雪歌送武判官归京

北风卷地白草折， 胡天八月即飞雪；
忽如一夜春风来， 千树万树梨花开。
散入珠帘湿罗幕， 狐裘不暖锦衾薄。
将军角弓不得控， 都护铁衣冷犹著。
瀚海阑干百丈冰， 愁云黪淡万里凝。
中军置酒饮归客， 胡琴琵琶与羌笛。
纷纷暮雪下辕门， 风掣红旗冻不翻。
轮台东门送君去， 去时雪满天山路；
山回路转不见君， 雪上空留马行处。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHITE SNOW IN FAREWELL
TO FIELD-CLERK WU GOING HOME

The north wind rolls the white grasses and breaks them;
And the Eighth-month snow across the Tartar sky
Is like a spring gale, come up in the night,
Blowing open the petals of ten thousand peartrees.
It enters the pearl blinds, it wets the silk curtains;
A fur coat feels cold, a cotton mat flimsy;
Bows become rigid, can hardly be drawn
And the metal of armour congeals on the men;
The sand-sea deepens with fathomless ice,
And darkness masses its endless clouds;
But we drink to our guest bound home from camp,
And play him barbarian lutes, guitars, harps;
Till at dusk, when the drifts are crushing our tents
And our frozen red flags cannot flutter in the wind,
We watch him through Wheel-Tower Gate going eastward.
Into the snow-mounds of Heaven-Peak Road....
And then he disappears at the turn of the pass,
Leaving behind him only hoof-prints.

060

七言古诗

杜甫

韦讽录事宅观曹将军画马图

国初以来画鞍马， 神妙独数江都王。
将军得名三十载， 人间又见真乘黄。
曾貌先帝照夜白， 龙池十日飞霹雳，
内府殷红玛瑙盘， 婕妤传诏才人索。
盘赐将军拜舞归， 轻纨细绮相追飞；
贵戚权门得笔迹， 始觉屏障生光辉。
昔日太宗拳毛騧， 近时郭家狮子花。
今之新图有二马， 复令识者久叹嗟，
此皆骑战一敌万， 缟素漠漠开风沙。
其余七匹亦殊绝， 迥若寒空杂烟雪；
霜蹄蹴踏长楸间， 马官厮养森成列。
可怜九马争神骏， 顾视清高气深稳。
借问苦心爱者谁？ 后有韦讽前支盾。
忆昔巡幸新丰宫， 翠花拂天来向东；
腾骧磊落三万匹， 皆与此图筋骨同。
自从献宝朝河宗， 无复射蛟江水中。
君不见， 金粟堆前松柏里，
龙媒去尽鸟呼风。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A DRAWING OF A HORSE BY GENERAL CAO
AT SECRETARY WEI FENG'S HOUSE

Throughout this dynasty no one had painted horses
Like the master-spirit, Prince Jiangdu --
And then to General Cao through his thirty years of fame
The world's gaze turned, for royal steeds.
He painted the late Emperor's luminous white horse.
For ten days the thunder flew over Dragon Lake,
And a pink-agate plate was sent him from the palace-
The talk of the court-ladies, the marvel of all eyes.
The General danced, receiving it in his honoured home
After this rare gift, followed rapidly fine silks
From many of the nobles, requesting that his art
Lend a new lustre to their screens.
...First came the curly-maned horse of Emperor Taizong,
Then, for the Guos, a lion-spotted horse....
But now in this painting I see two horses,
A sobering sight for whosoever knew them.
They are war- horses. Either could face ten thousand.
They make the white silk stretch away into a vast desert.
And the seven others with them are almost as noble
Mist and snow are moving across a cold sky,
And hoofs are cleaving snow-drifts under great trees-
With here a group of officers and there a group of servants.
See how these nine horses all vie with one another-
The high clear glance, the deep firm breath.
...Who understands distinction? Who really cares for art?
You, Wei Feng, have followed Cao; Zhidun preceded him.
...I remember when the late Emperor came toward his Summer Palace,
The procession, in green-feathered rows, swept from the eastern sky --
Thirty thousand horses, prancing, galloping,
Fashioned, every one of them, like the horses in this picture....
But now the Imperial Ghost receives secret jade from the River God,
For the Emperor hunts crocodiles no longer by the streams.
Where you see his Great Gold Tomb, you may hear among the pines
A bird grieving in the wind that the Emperor's horses are gone.

061

七言古诗

杜甫

丹青引赠曹霸将军

将军魏武之子孙， 于今为庶为青门；
英雄割据虽已矣！ 文采风流今尚存。
学书初学卫夫人， 但恨无过王右军。
丹青不知老将至， 富贵于我如浮云。
开元之中常引见， 承恩数上南熏殿，
凌烟功臣少颜色， 将军下笔开生面。
良相头上进贤冠， 猛将腰间大羽箭。
褒公鄂公毛发动， 英姿飒爽犹酣战。
先帝天马玉花骢， 画工如山貌不同。
是日牵来赤墀下， 迥立阊阖生长风。
诏谓将军拂绢素， 意匠惨淡经营中；
斯须九重真龙出， 一洗万古凡马空。
玉花却在御榻上， 榻上庭前屹相向；
至尊含笑催赐金， 圉人太仆皆惆怅，
弟子韩干早入室， 亦能画马穷殊相；
干惟画肉不画骨， 忍使骅骝气凋丧。
将军画善盖有神， 偶逢佳士亦写真；
即今漂泊干戈际， 屡貌寻常行路人。
涂穷反遭俗眼白， 世上未有如公贫；
但看古来盛名下， 终日坎壈缠其身。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF A PAINTING TO GENERAL CAO

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.

062

七言古诗

杜甫

寄韩谏议

今我不乐思岳阳， 身欲奋飞病在床。
美人娟娟隔秋水， 濯足洞庭望八荒。
鸿飞冥冥日月白， 青枫叶赤天雨霜。
玉京群帝集北斗， 或骑麒麟翳凤凰。
芙蓉旌旗烟雾落， 影动倒景摇潇湘。
星宫之君醉琼浆， 羽人稀少不在旁。
似闻昨者赤松子， 恐是汉代韩张良；
昔随刘氏定长安， 帷幄未改神惨伤。
国家成败吾岂敢？ 色难腥腐餐枫香。
周南留滞古所惜， 南极老人应寿昌。
美人胡为隔秋水？ 焉得置之贡玉堂。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A LETTER TO CENSOR HAN

I am sad. My thoughts are in Youzhou.
I would hurry there-but I am sick in bed.
...Beauty would be facing me across the autumn waters.
Oh, to wash my feet in Lake Dongting and see at its eight corners
Wildgeese flying high, sun and moon both white,
Green maples changing to red in the frosty sky,
Angels bound for the Capital of Heaven, near the North Star,
Riding, some of them phrenixes, and others unicorns,
With banners of hibiscus and with melodies of mist,
Their shadows dancing upside-down in the southern rivers,
Till the Queen of the Stars, drowsy with her nectar,
Would forget the winged men on either side of her!
...From the Wizard of the Red Pine this word has come for me:
That after his earlier follower he has now a new disciple
Who, formerly at the capital as Emperor Liu's adviser,
In spite of great successes, never could be happy.
...What are a country's rise and fall?
Can flesh-pots be as fragrant as mountain fruit?....
I grieve that he is lost far away in the south.
May the star of long life accord him its blessing!
...O purity, to seize you from beyond the autumn waters
And to place you as an offering in the Court of Imperial Jade.

063

七言古诗

杜甫

古柏行

孔明庙前有老柏， 柯如青铜根如石；
双皮溜雨四十围， 黛色参天二千尺。
君臣已与时际会， 树木犹为人爱惜。
云来气接巫峡长， 月出寒通雪山白。
忆昨路绕锦亭东， 先主武侯同閟宫。
崔嵬枝干郊原古， 窈窕丹青户牖空。
落落盘踞虽得地， 冥冥孤高多烈风。
扶持自是神明力， 正直元因造化功。
大厦如倾要梁栋， 万牛回首丘山重。
不露文章世已惊， 未辞剪伐谁能送？
苦心岂免容蝼蚁？ 香叶终经宿鸾凤。
志士幽人莫怨嗟， 古来材大难为用。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF AN OLD CYPRESS

Beside the Temple of the Great Premier stands an ancient cypress
With a trunk of green bronze and a root of stone.
The girth of its white bark would be the reach of forty men
And its tip of kingfish-blue is two thousand feet in heaven.
Dating from the days of a great ruler's great statesman,
Their very tree is loved now and honoured by the people.
Clouds come to it from far away, from the Wu cliffs,
And the cold moon glistens on its peak of snow.
...East of the Silk Pavilion yesterday I found
The ancient ruler and wise statesman both worshipped in one temple,
Whose tree, with curious branches, ages the whole landscape
In spite of the fresh colours of the windows and the doors.
And so firm is the deep root, so established underground,
That its lone lofty boughs can dare the weight of winds,
Its only protection the Heavenly Power,
Its only endurance the art of its Creator.
Though oxen sway ten thousand heads, they cannot move a mountain.
...When beams are required to restore a great house,
Though a tree writes no memorial, yet people understand
That not unless they fell it can use be made of it....
Its bitter heart may be tenanted now by black and white ants,
But its odorous leaves were once the nest of phoenixes and pheasants.
...Let wise and hopeful men harbour no complaint.
The greater the timber, the tougher it is to use.

064

七言古诗

杜甫

观公孙大娘弟子舞剑器行并序

昔有佳人公孙氏， 一舞剑器动四方。
观者如山色沮丧， 天地为之久低昂。
霍如羿射九日落， 矫如群帝骖龙翔，
来如雷霆收震怒， 罢如江海凝清光。
绛唇珠袖两寂寞， 晚有弟子传芬芳。
临颍美人在白帝， 妙舞此曲神扬扬。
与余问答既有以， 感时抚事增惋伤。
先帝侍女八千人， 公孙剑器初第一。
五十年间似反掌， 风尘澒洞昏王室。
梨园子弟散如烟， 女乐余姿映寒日。
金粟堆前木已拱， 瞿塘石城草萧瑟。
玳筵急管曲复终， 乐极哀来月东出。
老夫不知其所往？ 足茧荒山转愁疾。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF DAGGER-DANCING TO A GIRL-PUPIL
OF LADY GONGSUN

There lived years ago the beautiful Gongsun,
Who, dancing with her dagger, drew from all four quarters
An audience like mountains lost among themselves.
Heaven and earth moved back and forth, following her motions,
Which were bright as when the Archer shot the nine suns down the sky
And rapid as angels before the wings of dragons.
She began like a thunderbolt, venting its anger,
And ended like the shining calm of rivers and the sea....
But vanished are those red lips and those pearly sleeves;
And none but this one pupil bears the perfume of her fame,
This beauty from Lingying, at the Town of the White God,
Dancing still and singing in the old blithe way.
And while we reply to each other's questions,
We sigh together, saddened by changes that have come.
There were eight thousand ladies in the late Emperor's court,
But none could dance the dagger-dance like Lady Gongsun.
...Fifty years have passed, like the turning of a palm;
Wind and dust, filling the world, obscure the Imperial House.
Instead of the Pear-Garden Players, who have blown by like a mist,
There are one or two girl-musicians now-trying to charm the cold Sun.
There are man-size trees by the Emperor's Golden Tomb
I seem to hear dead grasses rattling on the cliffs of Qutang.
...The song is done, the slow string and quick pipe have ceased.
At the height of joy, sorrow comes with the eastern moon rising.
And I, a poor old man, not knowing where to go,
Must harden my feet on the lone hills, toward sickness and despair.

065

七言古诗

元结

石鱼湖上醉歌并序

石鱼湖， 似洞庭，
夏水欲满君山青。
山为樽， 水为沼，
酒徒历历坐洲鸟。
长风连日作大浪， 不能废人运酒舫。
我持长瓢坐巴丘， 酌饮四座以散愁。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Yuan Jie

A DRINKING SONG AT STONE-FISH LAKE

Stone-Fish Lake is like Lake Dongting --
When the top of Zun is green and the summer tide is rising.
...With the mountain for a table, and the lake a fount of wine,
The tipplers all are settled along the sandy shore.
Though a stiff wind for days has roughened the water,
Wine-boats constantly arrive....
I have a long-necked gourd and, happy on Ba Island,
I am pouring a drink in every direction doing away with care.

066

七言古诗

韩愈

山石

山石荦确行径微， 黄昏到寺蝙蝠飞。
升堂坐阶新雨足， 芭蕉叶大栀子肥。
僧言古壁佛画好， 以火来照所见稀。
铺床拂席置羹饭， 疏粝亦足饱我饥。
夜深静卧百虫绝， 清月出岭光入扉。
天明独去无道路， 出入高下穷烟霏。
山红涧碧纷烂漫， 时见松枥皆十围。
当流赤足蹋涧石， 水声激激风吹衣。
人生如此自可乐， 岂必局束为人鞿？
嗟哉吾党二三子， 安得至老不更归？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

MOUNTAIN-STONES

Rough were the mountain-stones, and the path very narrow;
And when I reached the temple, bats were in the dusk.
I climbed to the hall, sat on the steps, and drank the rain- washed air
Among the round gardenia-pods and huge bananaleaves.
On the old wall, said the priest, were Buddhas finely painted,
And he brought a light and showed me, and I called them wonderful
He spread the bed, dusted the mats, and made my supper ready,
And, though the food was coarse, it satisfied my hunger.
At midnight, while I lay there not hearing even an insect,
The mountain moon with her pure light entered my door....
At dawn I left the mountain and, alone, lost my way:
In and out, up and down, while a heavy mist
Made brook and mountain green and purple, brightening everything.
I am passing sometimes pines and oaks, which ten men could not girdle,
I am treading pebbles barefoot in swift-running water --
Its ripples purify my ear, while a soft wind blows my garments....
These are the things which, in themselves, make life happy.
Why should we be hemmed about and hampered with people?
O chosen pupils, far behind me in my own country,
What if I spent my old age here and never went back home?

067

七言古诗

韩愈

八月十五夜赠张功曹

纤云四卷天无河， 清风吹空月舒波。
沙平水息声影绝， 一杯相属君当歌。
君歌声酸辞且苦， 不能听终泪如雨。
洞庭连天九疑高， 蛟龙出没猩鼯号。
十生九死到官所， 幽居默默如藏逃。
下床畏蛇食畏药， 海气湿蛰熏腥臊。
昨者州前槌大鼓， 嗣皇继圣登夔皋。
赦书一日行万里， 罪从大辟皆除死。
迁者追回流者还， 涤瑕荡垢清朝班。
州家申名使家抑， 坎轲祇得移荆蛮。
判司卑官不堪说， 未免捶楚尘埃间。
同时辈流多上道， 天路幽险难追攀。
君歌且休听我歌， 我歌今与君殊科。
一年明月今宵多， 人生由命非由他；
有酒不饮奈明何？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE MOON
TO SUB-OFFICIAL ZHANG

The fine clouds have opened and the River of Stars is gone,
A clear wind blows across the sky, and the moon widens its wave,
The sand is smooth, the water still, no sound and no shadow,
As I offer you a cup of wine, asking you to sing.
But so sad is this song of yours and so bitter your voice
That before I finish listening my tears have become a rain:
"Where Lake Dongting is joined to the sky by the lofty Nine-Doubt Mountain,
Dragons, crocodiles, rise and sink, apes, flying foxes, whimper....
At a ten to one risk of death, I have reached my official post,
Where lonely I live and hushed, as though I were in hiding.
I leave my bed, afraid of snakes; I eat, fearing poisons;
The air of the lake is putrid, breathing its evil odours....
Yesterday, by the district office, the great drum was announcing
The crowning of an emperor, a change in the realm.
The edict granting pardons runs three hundred miles a day,
All those who were to die have had their sentences commuted,
The unseated are promoted and exiles are recalled,
Corruptions are abolished, clean officers appointed.
My superior sent my name in but the governor would not listen
And has only transferred me to this barbaric place.
My rank is very low and useless to refer to;
They might punish me with lashes in the dust of the street.
Most of my fellow exiles are now returning home --
A journey which, to me, is a heaven beyond climbing."
...Stop your song, I beg you, and listen to mine,
A song that is utterly different from yours:
"Tonight is the loveliest moon of the year.
All else is with fate, not ours to control;
But, refusing this wine, may we choose more tomorrow?"

068

七言古诗

韩愈

谒衡岳庙遂宿岳寺题门楼

五岳祭秩皆三公， 四方环镇嵩当中。
火维地荒足妖怪， 天假神柄专其雄。
喷云泄雾藏半腹， 虽有绝顶谁能穷？
我来正逢秋雨节， 阴气晦昧无清风。
潜心默祷若有应， 岂非正直能感通？
须臾静扫众峰出， 仰见突兀撑青空。
紫盖连延接天柱， 石廪腾掷堆祝融。
森然魄动下马拜， 松柏一迳趋灵宫。
纷墙丹柱动光彩， 鬼物图画填青红。
升阶伛偻荐脯酒， 欲以菲薄明其衷。
庙内老人识神意， 睢盱侦伺能鞠躬。
手持杯珓导我掷， 云此最吉余难同。
窜逐蛮荒幸不死， 衣食才足甘长终。
侯王将相望久绝， 神纵欲福难为功。
夜投佛寺上高阁， 星月掩映云曈昽。
猿鸣钟动不知曙， 杲杲寒日生于东。

Seven-character-quatrain

Han Yu

STOPPING AT A TEMPLE ON HENG MOUNTAIN I
INSCRIBE THIS POEM IN THE GATE-TOWER

The five Holy Mountains have the rank of the Three Dukes.
The other four make a ring, with the Song Mountain midmost.
To this one, in the fire-ruled south, where evil signs are rife,
Heaven gave divine power, ordaining it a peer.
All the clouds and hazes are hidden in its girdle;
And its forehead is beholden only by a few.
...I came here in autumn, during the rainy season,
When the sky was overcast and the clear wind gone.
I quieted my mind and prayed, hoping for an answer;
For assuredly righteous thinking reaches to high heaven.
And soon all the mountain-peaks were showing me their faces;
I looked up at a pinnacle that held the clean blue sky:
The wide Purple-Canopy joined the Celestial Column;
The Stone Granary leapt, while the Fire God stood still.
Moved by this token, I dismounted to offer thanks.
A long path of pine and cypress led to the temple.
Its white walls and purple pillars shone, and the vivid colour
Of gods and devils filled the place with patterns of red and blue.
I climbed the steps and, bending down to sacrifice, besought
That my pure heart might be welcome, in spite of my humble offering.
The old priest professed to know the judgment of the God:
He was polite and reverent, making many bows.
He handed me divinity-cups, he showed me how to use them
And told me that my fortune was the very best of all.
Though exiled to a barbarous land, mine is a happy life.
Plain food and plain clothes are all I ever wanted.
To be prince, duke, premier, general, was never my desire;
And if the God would bless me, what better could he grant than this ? --
At night I lie down to sleep in the top of a high tower;
While moon and stars glimmer through the darkness of the clouds....
Apes call, a bell sounds. And ready for dawn
I see arise, far in the east the cold bright sun.

069

七言古诗

韩愈

石鼓歌

张生手持石鼓文， 劝我识作石鼓歌。
少陵无人谪仙死， 才薄将奈石鼓何？
周纲淩迟四海沸， 宣王愤起挥天戈；
大开明堂受朝贺， 诸侯剑佩鸣相磨。
搜于岐阳骋雄俊， 万里禽兽皆遮罗。
镌功勒成告万世， 凿石作鼓隳嵯峨。
从臣才艺咸第一， 拣选撰刻留山阿。
雨淋日炙野火燎， 鬼物守护烦撝呵。
公从何处得纸本？ 毫发尽备无差讹。
辞严义密读难晓， 字体不类隶与蝌。
年深岂免有缺画？ 快剑砍断生蛟鼍。
鸾翔凤翥众仙下， 珊瑚碧树交枝柯。
金绳铁索锁钮壮， 古鼎跃水龙腾梭。
陋儒编诗不收入， 二雅褊迫无委蛇。
孔子西行不到秦， 掎摭星宿遗羲娥。
嗟予好古生苦晚， 对此涕泪双滂沱。
忆昔初蒙博士徵， 其年始改称元和。
故人从军在右辅， 为我度量掘臼科。
濯冠沐浴告祭酒， 如此至宝存岂多？
毡包席裹可立致， 十鼓祇载数骆驼。
荐诸太庙比郜鼎， 光价岂止百倍过。
圣恩若许留太学， 诸生讲解得切磋。
观经鸿都尚填咽， 坐见举国来奔波。
剜苔剔藓露节角， 安置妥帖平不颇。
大厦深檐与盖覆， 经历久远期无佗。
中朝大官老于事， 讵肯感激徒媕婀？
牧童敲火牛砺角， 谁复著手为摩挲？
日销月铄就埋没， 六年西顾空吟哦。
羲之俗书趁姿媚， 数纸尚可博白鹅。
继周八代争战罢， 无人收拾理则那。
方今太平日无事， 柄任儒术崇丘轲。
安能以此上论列？ 愿借辩口如悬河。
石鼓之歌止于此， 呜呼吾意其蹉跎。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

A POEM ON THE STONE DRUMS

Chang handed me this tracing, from the stone drums,
Beseeching me to write a poem on the stone drums.
Du Fu has gone. Li Bai is dead.
What can my poor talent do for the stone drums?
...When the Zhou power waned and China was bubbling,
Emperor Xuan, up in wrath, waved his holy spear:
And opened his Great Audience, receiving all the tributes
Of kings and lords who came to him with a tune of clanging weapons.
They held a hunt in Qiyang and proved their marksmanship:
Fallen birds and animals were strewn three thousand miles.
And the exploit was recorded, to inform new generations....
Cut out of jutting cliffs, these drums made of stone-
On which poets and artisans, all of the first order,
Had indited and chiselled-were set in the deep mountains
To be washed by rain, baked by sun, burned by wildfire,
Eyed by evil spirits; and protected by the gods.
...Where can he have found the tracing on this paper? --
True to the original, not altered by a hair,
The meaning deep, the phrases cryptic, difficult to read.
And the style of the characters neither square nor tadpole.
Time has not yet vanquished the beauty of these letters --
Looking like sharp daggers that pierce live crocodiles,
Like phoenix-mates dancing, like angels hovering down,
Like trees of jade and coral with interlocking branches,
Like golden cord and iron chain tied together tight,
Like incense-tripods flung in the sea, like dragons mounting heaven.
Historians, gathering ancient poems, forgot to gather these,
To make the two Books of Musical Song more colourful and striking;
Confucius journeyed in the west, but not to the Qin Kingdom,
He chose our planet and our stars but missed the sun and moon
I who am fond of antiquity, was born too late
And, thinking of these wonderful things, cannot hold back my tears....
I remember, when I was awarded my highest degree,
During the first year of Yuanho,
How a friend of mine, then at the western camp,
Offered to assist me in removing these old relics.
I bathed and changed, then made my plea to the college president
And urged on him the rareness of these most precious things.
They could be wrapped in rugs, be packed and sent in boxes
And carried on only a few camels: ten stone drums
To grace the Imperial Temple like the Incense-Pot of Gao --
Or their lustre and their value would increase a hundredfold,
If the monarch would present them to the university,
Where students could study them and doubtless decipher them,
And multitudes, attracted to the capital of culture
Prom all corners of the Empire, would be quick to gather.
We could scour the moss, pick out the dirt, restore the original surface,
And lodge them in a fitting and secure place for ever,
Covered by a massive building with wide eaves
Where nothing more might happen to them as it had before.
...But government officials grow fixed in their ways
And never will initiate beyond old precedent;
So herd- boys strike the drums for fire, cows polish horns on them,
With no one to handle them reverentially.
Still ageing and decaying, soon they may be effaced.
Six years I have sighed for them, chanting toward the west....
The familiar script of Wang Xizhi, beautiful though it was,
Could be had, several pages, just for a few white geese,
But now, eight dynasties after the Zhou, and all the wars over,
Why should there be nobody caring for these drums?
The Empire is at peace, the government free.
Poets again are honoured and Confucians and Mencians....
Oh, how may this petition be carried to the throne?
It needs indeed an eloquent flow, like a cataract-
But, alas, my voice has broken, in my song of the stone drums,
To a sound of supplication choked with its own tears.

070

七言古诗

柳宗元

渔翁

渔翁夜傍西岩宿， 晓汲清湘燃楚烛。
烟销日出不见人， 欸乃一声山水绿。
回看天际下中流， 岩上无心云相逐。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

AN OLD FISHERMAN

An old fisherman spent the night here, under the western cliff;
He dipped up water from the pure Hsiang and made a bamboo fire;
And then, at sunrise, he went his way through the cloven mist,
With only the creak of his paddle left, in the greenness of mountain and river.
...I turn and see the waves moving as from heaven,
And clouds above the cliffs coming idly, one by one.

071

七言古诗

白居易

长恨歌

汉皇重色思倾国， 御宇多年求不得。
杨家有女初长成， 养在深闺人未识。
天生丽质难自弃， 一朝选在君王侧；
回眸一笑百媚生， 六宫粉黛无颜色。
春寒赐浴华清池， 温泉水滑洗凝脂；
侍儿扶起娇无力， 始是新承恩泽时。
云鬓花颜金步摇， 芙蓉帐暖度春宵；
春宵苦短日高起， 从此君王不早朝。
承欢侍宴无闲暇， 春从春游夜专夜。
后宫佳丽三千人， 三千宠爱在一身。
金星妆成娇侍夜， 玉楼宴罢醉和春。
姊妹弟兄皆列士， 可怜光彩生门户；
遂令天下父母心， 不重生男重生女。
骊宫高处入青云， 仙乐风飘处处闻；
缓歌慢舞凝丝竹， 尽日君王看不足。
渔阳鼙鼓动地来， 惊破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城阙烟尘生， 千乘万骑西南行。
翠华摇摇行复止， 西出都门百余里。
六军不发无奈何？ 宛转蛾眉马前死。
花钿委地无人收， 翠翘金雀玉搔头。
君王掩面救不得， 回看血泪相和流。
黄埃散漫风萧索， 云栈萦纡登剑阁。
峨嵋山下少人行， 旌旗无光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青， 圣主朝朝暮暮情。
行宫见月伤心色， 夜雨闻铃肠断声。
天旋地转回龙驭， 到此踌躇不能去。
马嵬坡下泥土中， 不见玉颜空死处。
君臣相顾尽沾衣， 东望都门信马归。
归来池苑皆依旧， 太液芙蓉未央柳；
芙蓉如面柳如眉， 对此如何不泪垂？
春风桃李花开日， 秋雨梧桐叶落时。
西宫南内多秋草， 落叶满阶红不扫。
梨园子弟白发新， 椒房阿监青娥老。
夕殿萤飞思悄然， 孤灯挑尽未成眠。
迟迟钟鼓初长夜， 耿耿星河欲曙天。
鸳鸯瓦冷霜华重， 翡翠衾寒谁与共？
悠悠生死别经年， 魂魄不曾来入梦。
临邛道士鸿都客， 能以精诚致魂魄；
为感君王辗转思， 遂教方士殷勤觅。
排空驭气奔如电， 升天入地求之遍；
上穷碧落下黄泉， 两处茫茫皆不见。
忽闻海上有仙山， 山在虚无缥缈间；
楼阁玲珑五云起， 其中绰约多仙子。
中有一人字太真， 雪肤花貌参差是。
金阙西厢叩玉扃， 转教小玉报双成。
闻道汉家天子使， 九华帐里梦魂惊。
揽衣推枕起徘徊， 珠箔银屏迤逦开，
云鬓半偏新睡觉， 花冠不整下堂来。
风吹仙袂飘飘举， 犹似霓裳羽衣舞；
玉容寂寞泪阑干， 梨花一枝春带雨。
含情凝睇谢君王， 一别音容两渺茫。
昭阳殿里恩爱绝， 蓬莱宫中日月长。
回头下望人寰处， 不见长安见尘雾。
唯将旧物表深情， 钿合金钗寄将去。
钗留一股合一扇， 钗擘黄金合分钿；
但教心似金钿坚， 天上人间会相见。
临别殷勤重寄词， 词中有誓两心知。
七月七日长生殿， 夜半无人私语时。
在天愿作比翼鸟， 在地愿为连理枝。
天长地久有时尽， 此恨绵绵无绝期。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Bai Juyi

A SONG OF UNENDING SORROW

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.

072

七言古诗

白居易

琵琶行并序

浔言江头夜送客， 枫叶荻花秋瑟瑟。
主人下马客在船， 举酒欲饮无管弦。
醉不成欢惨将别， 别时茫茫江浸月。
忽闻水上琵琶声， 主人忘归客不发。
寻声暗问弹者谁？ 琵琶声停欲语迟。
移船相近邀相见， 添酒回灯重开宴。
千呼万唤始出来， 犹抱琵琶半遮面。
转轴拨弦三两声， 未成曲调先有情。
弦弦掩抑声声思， 似诉平生不得志。
低眉信手续续弹， 说尽心中无限事。
轻拢慢撚抹复挑， 初为霓裳后六么。
大弦嘈嘈如急雨， 小弦切切如私语。
嘈嘈切切错杂弹， 大珠小珠落玉盘。
间官莺语花底滑， 幽咽泉流水下滩。
水泉冷涩弦凝绝， 凝绝不通声渐歇。
别有幽愁暗恨生， 此时无声胜有声。
银瓶乍破水浆迸， 铁骑突出刀鎗鸣。
曲终收拨当心画， 四弦一声如裂帛。
东船西舫悄无言， 唯见江心秋月白。
沈吟放拨插弦中， 整顿衣裳起敛容。
自言本是京城女， 家在虾蟆陵下住。
十三学得琵琶成， 名属教坊第一部。
曲罢曾教善才服， 妆成每被秋娘妒，
五陵年少争缠头， 一曲红绡不知数。
钿头银篦击节碎， 血色罗裙翻酒污。
今年欢笑复明年， 秋月春风等闲度。
弟走从军阿姨死， 暮去朝来颜色故。
门前冷落车马稀， 老大嫁作商人妇。
商人重利轻别离， 前月浮梁买茶去。
去来江口守空船， 绕船月明江水寒。
夜深忽梦少年事， 梦啼妆泪红阑干，
我闻琵琶已叹息， 又闻此语重唧唧。
同是天涯沦落人， 相逢何必曾相识。
我从去年辞帝京， 谪居卧病浔阳城。
浔阳地僻无音乐， 终岁不闻丝竹声。
住近湓江地低湿， 黄芦苦竹绕宅生。
其间旦暮闻何物， 杜鹃啼血猿哀鸣。
春江花朝秋月夜， 往往取酒还独倾。
岂无山歌与村笛？ 呕哑嘲哳难为听。
今夜闻君琵琶语， 如听仙乐耳暂明。
莫辞更坐弹一曲， 为君翻作琵琶行。
感我此言良久立， 却坐促弦弦转急。
凄凄不似向前声， 满座重闻皆掩泣。
座中泣下谁最多， 江州司马青衫湿。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Bai Chuyi

THE SONG OF A GUITAR

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.

073

七言古诗

李商隐

韩碑

元和天子神武姿， 彼何人哉轩与羲，
誓将上雪列圣耻， 坐法宫中朝四夷。
淮西有贼五十载， 封狼生貙貙生罴；
不据山河据平地， 长戈利矛日可麾。
帝得圣相相曰度， 贼斫不死神扶持。
腰悬相印作都统， 阴风惨澹天王旗。
愬武古通作牙爪， 仪曹外郎载笔随。
行军司马智且勇， 十四万众犹虎貔。
入蔡缚贼献太庙。 功无与让恩不訾。
帝曰汝度功第一， 汝从事愈宜为辞。
愈拜稽首蹈且舞， 金石刻画臣能为。
古者世称大手笔， 此事不系于职司。
当仁自古有不让， 言讫屡颔天子颐。
公退斋戒坐小阁， 濡染大笔何淋漓。
点窜尧典舜典字， 涂改清庙生民诗。
文成破体书在纸， 清晨再拜铺丹墀。
表曰臣愈昧死上， 咏神圣功书之碑。
碑高三丈字如斗， 负以灵鳌蟠以螭。
句奇语重喻者少， 谗之天子言其私。
长绳百尺拽碑倒。 粗沙大石相磨治。
公之斯文若元气， 先时已入人肝脾。
汤盘孔鼎有述作， 今无其器存其辞。
呜呼圣皇及圣相， 相与烜赫流淳熙。
公之斯文不示后， 曷与三五相攀追？
愿书万本诵万过， 口角流沫右手胝；
传之七十有二代， 以为封禅玉检明堂基。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Shangyin

THE HAN MONUMENT

The Son of Heaven in Yuanhe times was martial as a god
And might be likened only to the Emperors Xuan and Xi.
He took an oath to reassert the glory of the empire,
And tribute was brought to his palace from all four quarters.
Western Huai for fifty years had been a bandit country,
Wolves becoming lynxes, lynxes becoming bears.
They assailed the mountains and rivers, rising from the plains,
With their long spears and sharp lances aimed at the Sun.
But the Emperor had a wise premier, by the name of Du,
Who, guarded by spirits against assassination,
Hong at his girdle the seal of state, and accepted chief command,
While these savage winds were harrying the flags of the Ruler of Heaven.
Generals Suo, Wu, Gu, and Tong became his paws and claws;
Civil and military experts brought their writingbrushes,
And his recording adviser was wise and resolute.
A hundred and forty thousand soldiers, fighting like lions and tigers,
Captured the bandit chieftains for the Imperial Temple.
So complete a victory was a supreme event;
And the Emperor said: "To you, Du, should go the highest honour,
And your secretary, Yu, should write a record of it."
When Yu had bowed his head, he leapt and danced, saying:
"Historical writings on stone and metal are my especial art;
And, since I know the finest brush-work of the old masters,
My duty in this instance is more than merely official,
And I should be at fault if I modestly declined."
The Emperor, on hearing this, nodded many times.
And Yu retired and fasted and, in a narrow workroom,
His great brush thick with ink as with drops of rain,
Chose characters like those in the Canons of Yao and Xun,
And a style as in the ancient poems Qingmiao and Shengmin.
And soon the description was ready, on a sheet of paper.
In the morning he laid it, with a bow, on the purple stairs.
He memorialized the throne: "I, unworthy,
Have dared to record this exploit, for a monument."
The tablet was thirty feet high, the characters large as dippers;
It was set on a sacred tortoise, its columns flanked with ragons....
The phrases were strange with deep words that few could understand;
And jealousy entered and malice and reached the Emperor --
So that a rope a hundred feet long pulled the tablet down
And coarse sand and small stones ground away its face.
But literature endures, like the universal spirit,
And its breath becomes a part of the vitals of all men.
The Tang plate, the Confucian tripod, are eternal things,
Not because of their forms, but because of their inscriptions....
Sagacious is our sovereign and wise his minister,
And high their successes and prosperous their reign;
But unless it be recorded by a writing such as this,
How may they hope to rival the three and five good rulers?
I wish I could write ten thousand copies to read ten thousand times,
Till spittle ran from my lips and calluses hardened my fingers,
And still could hand them down, through seventy-two generations,
As corner-stones for Rooms of Great Deeds on the Sacred Mountains.

074

乐府

高适

燕歌行并序

汉家烟尘在东北， 汉将辞家破残贼。
男儿本自重横行， 天子非常赐颜色。
摐金伐鼓下榆关， 旌旆逶迤碣石间。
校尉羽书飞瀚海， 单于猎火照狼山。
山川萧条极边土， 胡骑凭陵杂风雨。
战士军前半死生， 美人帐下犹歌舞。
大漠穷秋塞草衰， 孤城落日斗兵稀。
身当恩遇常轻敌， 力尽关山未解围。
铁衣远戍辛勤久， 玉筋应啼别离后。
少妇城南欲断肠， 征人蓟北空回首。
边庭飘飖那可度？ 绝域苍茫更何有？
杀气三时作阵云， 寒声一夜传刁斗。
相看白刃血纷纷， 死节从来岂顾勋。
君不见沙场征战苦？ 至今犹忆李将军。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Gao Shi

A SONG OF THE YAN COUNTRY

The northeastern border of China was dark with smoke and dust.
To repel the savage invaders, our generals, leaving their families,
Strode forth together, looking as heroes should look;
And having received from the Emperor his most gracious favour,
They marched to the beat of gong and drum through the Elm Pass.
They circled the Stone Tablet with a line of waving flags,
Till their captains over the Sea of Sand were twanging feathered orders.
The Tartar chieftain's hunting-fires glimmered along Wolf Mountain,
And heights and rivers were cold and bleak there at the outer border;
But soon the barbarians' horses were plunging through wind and rain.
Half of our men at the front were killed, but the other half are living,
And still at the camp beautiful girls dance for them and sing.
...As autumn ends in the grey sand, with the grasses all withered,
The few surviving watchers by the lonely wall at sunset,
Serving in a good cause, hold life and the foeman lightly.
And yet, for all that they have done, Elm Pass is still unsafe.
Still at the front, iron armour is worn and battered thin,
And here at home food-sticks are made of jade tears.
Still in this southern city young wives' hearts are breaking,
While soldiers at the northern border vainly look toward home.
The fury of the wind cuts our men's advance
In a place of death and blue void, with nothingness ahead.
Three times a day a cloud of slaughter rises over the camp;
And all night long the hour-drums shake their chilly booming,
Until white swords can be seen again, spattered with red blood.
...When death becomes a duty, who stops to think of fame?
Yet in speaking of the rigours of warfare on the desert
We name to this day Li, the great General, who lived long ago.