Requiems
挽歌诗三首
As death displaces every life for sure,
An early death can’t be called premature.
Yesterday I was alive like other souls;
Today my name is listed on death rolls.
其一
有生必有死，早终非命促。
昨暮同为人，今旦在鬼录。
My spirit is dissolved into thin air,
With my frame in the coffin lying there.
My tender children cry for me in vain
While my friends shed tears like rain.
魂气散何之？枯形寄空木。
娇儿索父啼，良友抚我哭。
I'm unaware of any loss and gain lifelong.
Nor do I care about the right and wrong.
Ten millennium after I am gone,
Who knows my fame or shame will linger on?
得失不复知，是非安能觉！
千秋万岁後，谁知荣与辱。
Howe’er，my sole regret will still survive
That I didn't drink enough wine when alive.
但恨在世时，饮酒不得足。
II
Alive, I never had my fill of wine，
But now the wine stays idle on the shrine.
With beads of spring wine bubbling now and then,
Oh that I have another sip again!
其二
昔在无酒饮，今但湛空觞。
春醪生浮蚁，何时更能尝。
On my altar piles the sacrificial food,
The kith and kin weep in a mournful mood.
I wish to say but cannot speak a sound.
I wish to see but cannot look around.
肴案盈我前，亲旧哭我傍。
欲语口无音，欲视眼无光。
In the past I sleep in spacious halls,
But now I lie in fields where wild grass sprawls.
Once I leave my home in dreamless sleep,
My soul alone returns when night is deep.
昔在高堂寝，今宿荒草乡。
一朝出门去，归来夜未央。
III
The wild grass stretches far and wide
While poplars whisper in the countryside.
When frost is heavy in an autumn date，
My hearse is carried outside city gate.
其三
荒草何茫茫，白杨亦萧萧。
严霜九月中，送我出远郊。
A profound silence reigns o’er the no-man's land;
In the graveyard, lofty tombstones stand.
The horse neighs, raising its head to the skies;
The wind is wailing and heaving woeful sighs.
四面无人居，高坟正嶣峣。
马为仰天鸣，风为自萧条。
Once the sepulcher is closed and sealed,
I’ll lie fore’er in darkness in the field.
To lie fore’er in darkness in the field,
Even saints and sages have to yield.
幽室一已闭，千年不复朝。
千年不复朝，贤达无奈何！
Those who come in mourning all the way
Soon leave for home to spend the rest of day.
My relatives may have some lingering grief
While others cheer up for their woe is brief.
向来相送人，各自还其家。
亲戚或馀悲，他人亦已歌。
What else is there for the dead man to say?
Underneath the hill his body turns to clay.
死去何所道，托体同山阿。