Mourn for My First Cousin Zhongde
悲从弟仲德
In woe I pass your old house long apart
And shed large teardrops with a bleeding heart.
For whom on earth should I have felt such grief?
For you,who have found ultimate relief.
衔哀过旧宅，悲泪应心零。
借问为谁悲？怀人在九冥。
Although you were my cousin just like others,
We were in fact as dear and close as brothers.
Parting at the gateway, hand in hand,
Who'd think you’d first go to the nether-land?
礼服名群从，恩爱若同生。
门前执手时，何意尔先倾！
Your life is ended by the hand of fate,
Before you have accomplished anything great.
Your caring mother pines away with woe
While your two little sons are yet to grow.
在数竟未免，为山不及成。
慈母沈哀疚，二胤才数龄。
In the empty hall, the couple’s tablets lie,
Without a single sigh, without a cry.
The roving dust has gathered on the chair;
Wild grass runs rampant in the yard out there.
双位委空馆，朝夕无哭声。
流尘集虚坐，宿草旅前庭。
On doorsteps none of your footprints survive;
The yard alone has kept your trace alive.
With the nature’s changing course you fade
And leave fore'er the earth on which you stayed.
阶除旷游迹，园林独馀情。
翳然乘化去，终天不复形。
Reluctantly toward my home I go,
My garments soaked with tears of boundless woe
迟迟将回步，恻恻悲襟盈。