My Contemplation
有会而作并序
When the old crops have been consumed and the new crops have not been reaped, as a farmer in a famine year, I have many hard days in store. Without any hope for the harvest，I can barely make both ends meet. For ten days running, I have been hungry and weak. As the year draws to its close, I write this poem to vent my woeful thoughts. If I do not write them down, how can my heirs get to know!
旧谷既没，新谷未登，颇为老农，而值年灾。日月尚悠，为患未已。登岁之功，既不可希，朝夕所资，烟火载通；旬日以来，始念饥乏。岁云夕矣，慨然永怀。今我不述，後生何闻哉！
I tasted shortage early in my youth
And hunger at senior age has brought much ruth.
Pleased with simple meals though they are crude,
How can I ever covet dainty food!
弱年逢家乏，老至更长饥。
菽麦实所羡，孰敢慕甘肥！
With only little foodstuff on my trays,
I wear the winter coats in summer days.
When the year is drawing to its end，
What distress and woe I apprehend!
惄如亚九饭，当暑厌寒衣。
岁月将欲暮，如何辛苦悲。
Qian Ao provided porridge for the poor
But some starving man would not accept the lure.
There’s no sense in rejecting food this way;
The man was starved to death and turned to clay.
常善粥者心，深念蒙袂非。
嗟来可足吝，徒没空自遗。
Yet wanton craving is not what I boast;
I cherish honest poverty the most.
I do not mind the hunger and the cold
As I just learn from saints in days of old.
斯滥岂攸志，固穷夙所归。
馁也已矣夫，在昔余多师。