Last year we were fighting at the source of the Sanggan;
This year we are fighting on the Onion River road.
We have washed our swords in the surf of Parthian Seas;
We have pastured our horses among the snows of the Tian Shan.
The King’s armies have grown grey and old
Fighting ten thousand leagues away from home.
The Huns have no trade but battle and carnage;
They have no fields or ploughlands,
But only wastes where white bones lie among yellow sands.
Where the House of Qin built the Great Wall that was to keep away the Tartars,
There, in its turn, the House of Han lit beacons of war.
The beacons are always alight, fighting and marching never stop.
Men die in the field, slashing sword to sword;
The horses of the conquered neigh piteously to Heaven.
Crows and hawks peck for human guts,
Carry them in their beaks and hang them on the branches of withered trees.
Captains and soldiers are smeared on the bushes and grass;
The general schemed in vain.
Know therefore that the sword is a cursed thing
Which the wise man uses only if he must.
Fighting South of the Ramparts
战城南
去年战桑干源，今年战葱河道。 洗兵条支海上波，放马天山雪中草。 万里长征战，三军尽衰老。 匈奴以杀戮为耕作，古来唯见白骨黄沙田。 秦家筑城避胡处，汉家还有烽火然。 烽火然不息，征战无已时。 野战格斗死，败马号鸣向天悲。 乌鸢啄人肠，衔飞上挂枯树枝。 士卒涂草莽，将军空尔为。 乃知兵者是凶器，圣人不得已而用之。Last year we were fighting at the source of the Sanggan;
This year we are fighting on the Onion River road.
We have washed our swords in the surf of Parthian Seas;
We have pastured our horses among the snows of the Tian Shan.
The King’s armies have grown grey and old
Fighting ten thousand leagues away from home.
The Huns have no trade but battle and carnage;
They have no fields or ploughlands,
But only wastes where white bones lie among yellow sands.
Where the House of Qin built the Great Wall that was to keep away the Tartars,
There, in its turn, the House of Han lit beacons of war.
The beacons are always alight, fighting and marching never stop.
Men die in the field, slashing sword to sword;
The horses of the conquered neigh piteously to Heaven.
Crows and hawks peck for human guts,
Carry them in their beaks and hang them on the branches of withered trees.
Captains and soldiers are smeared on the bushes and grass;
The general schemed in vain.
Know therefore that the sword is a cursed thing
Which the wise man uses only if he must.