兵车行 杜甫
车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰。
耶娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。
牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄。
道旁过者问行人，行人但云点行频。
或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田。
去时里正与裹头，归来头白还戍边。
边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已。
君不闻汉家山东二百州，千村万落生荆杞。
纵有健妇把锄犁，禾生陇亩无东西。
况复秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬与鸡。
长者虽有问，役夫敢申恨？
且如今年冬，未休关西卒。
县官急索租，租税从何出？
信知生男恶，反是生女好。
生女犹得嫁比邻，生男埋没随百草。
君不见，青海头，古来白骨无人收。
新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾！
《兵车行》剧照
A Song of the Conscripts
Du Fu
Tr. Feng Hong
The chariots rattled and the battle steeds neighed,
And the ready passengers with arrows and bows at waistbands tied.
Parents, wives and children saw them off from the start,
With Xiangyang Bridge misted in the dust.
Clinging to the men’s clothes, stamping and weeping, they made the jams;
They cried which resounded straight to the skies.
I walked along the roadside and asked the one,
Who said to me there were the recruits very often.
Someone at his fifteen stationed in the north of the Yellow River,
But till his forty in the west with his troops he reclaimed wasteland like a farmer.
For there he was wrapped the headscarf by the village headman,
While when he returned with the grey hair, he was drafted again.
Although in the frontier the blood oozed out to be the sea,
The emperor’s will to broaden the territory hasn’t ceased by no way.
Haven’t you heard in the east of the pass there were two hundred counties,
With weeds overgrown in numerous villages and hamlets?
The strong women tilled fields with the hoes and plow,
Yet the standing grains grew well but yielded no more.
Though the troops from Guanzhong were very tough,
They were driven the same as dogs and chickens in a farm.
You, sir, ask some details which concern,
But the conscript dare not complain.
This winter is the same as before,
And the draft isn’t stopped no more.
The apportionments by the officers are urgently ordered,
But where can the land taxes be spared?
Now we believe that is not better to have a boy,
While a girl brings the family joy,
A girl married would be in the neighborhoods,
But a boy would be perished with weed roots.
Can’t you see, along Lake Kokonor each side
The bleached bones lay about but unburied?
The new ghosts complain and the old ghosts drearily cry,
Especially cloudy and rainy days with rustlings in the sky!
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