Category Archives: Peace and War
At a Border Fortress - 塞下曲・其一
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 Yu and from Ping
Who have buried their lives in the dusty sand.
…Let never a cavalier stir you to envy
With boasts of [...]
The Moon at the Fortified Pass - 关山月
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....
An Oath - 陇西行
They swore the Huns should perish:
they would die if needs they must…
And now five thousand, sable-clad,
have bit the Tartar dust.
Along the river-bank their bones
lie scattered where they may,
But still their forms in dreams arise
to fair ones far away.
A Song of an Autumn Midnight - 子夜秋歌
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!
A Song of Liangzhou - 凉州词
They sing, they drain their cups of jade,
They strum on horseback their guitars.
…Why laugh when they fall asleep drunk on the sand ? -
How many soldiers ever come home?
A Spring Feast - 社日（一作张演诗）