Author: Thomas

中文原文﹕

昨夜星辰昨夜風，
畫樓西畔桂堂東。
身無綵鳳雙飛翼，
心有靈犀一點通。

隔座送鉤春酒暖，
分曹射覆蠟燈紅。
嗟余聽鼓應官去，
走馬蘭臺類轉蓬。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

Last night under the stars catching breezes of bedtime,
We had a rendezvous west of the Pictorial Chamber and east of the Cinnamon Hall.
I had not a radiant phoenix's pair of glorious wings,
Yet we had a meeting of minds and binding of hearts to each other enthral.

We sat together playing drinking games over the warmth provided by spring wine,
Surrounded by the flames of crimson candles we took turns to each other's riddles solve.
Before long came morning gongs and I had to the Morning Assembly attend,
Like a drifting fleabane I sauntered on horseback towards the terrace for officers.

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中文原文﹕

錦瑟無端五十弦，
一弦一柱思華年。
莊生曉夢迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心托杜鵑。

滄海月明珠有淚，
藍田日暖玉生煙。
此情可待成追憶，
只是當時已惘然。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

Coincidentally this beautiful zither has fifty strings,
Each string, each fret reminds me of a year that has gone by.
Life is a dream, mine seems illusory like those beautiful butterflies in Zhuangzi's reverie,
Once I loved like King Hope and wished to a cuckoo become to hold onto springtime.

Suffering brings out tears in the vast sea that under the brightest moon seem like pearls,
Fond memories are like the Bluefield jade warmed in the sun that could joy volatilise.
All emotions have become the past held only in remembrance,
What could not be would never be, forever gone are the old times.

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中文原文﹕

時難年饑世業空，
弟兄羈旅各西東。
田園寥落干戈後，
骨肉流離道路中。

弔影分為千里雁，
辭根散作九秋蓬。
共看明月應垂淚，
一夜鄉心五處同。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

Amidst a famine on top of difficult times and having spent all ancestral heirlooms,
Scattered in different corners of the world, brothers of mine have been roving.
Family estate and land lay waste by war,
Blood relations are wandering in destitute driven from pillar to post.

Thousands of miles away from home, I am a picture of a goose lost in the wild alone,
Adrift in the wind like fleabane in autumn, blown away from where they had grown.
When we the same moon admire tears would follow,
Though in five different spots we are tonight, no different are our hearts, all missing home.

.

中文原文﹕

閒坐悲君亦自悲，
百年多是幾多時？
鄧攸無子尋知命，
潘岳悼亡猶費詞。

同穴窅冥何所望？
他生緣會更難期。
惟將終夜長開眼，
報答平生未展眉。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

In moments of idleness your death grieves me and I also myself grieve,
A hundred years is a long time yet how insignificant it can also be!
Deng You had to give up his son and he accepted it as fate,
Pan Yue wrote a trilogy of elegy lamenting his wife's passing away, all but verbosity in vain.

How is being buried together for reunion in afterlife a wish that is other than vague?
It is just as remote to pray for and be granted your hand in marriage in the next life again.
What I do have is insomnia throughout the night keeping me awake,
To compensate for my inability to your knitted eyebrows ease in your living days.

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中文原文﹕

昔日戲言身後事，
今朝都到眼前來。
衣裳已施行看盡，
針線猶存未忍開。

尚想舊情憐婢僕，
也曾因夢送錢財。
誠知此恨人人有，
貧賤夫妻百事哀。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

How we used to joke about afterlife and who would the other survive,
Now it has all happened right before my eyes.
I've been donating your clothes and I've nearly given all away,
I keep your needlework stowed away as I cannot bear to look at what you left behind.

I am still sentimental about our past and have a soft spot for our old servants,
And I have burnt offerings for you after dreaming of you time after time.
Indeed I know such a regret is common in many people's lives,
How poor and lowly couples face hundreds of obstacles daunting their married life.

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中文原文﹕

謝公最小偏憐女，
自嫁黔婁百事乖。
顧我無衣搜藎篋，
泥他沽酒拔金釵。

野蔬充膳甘長藿，
落葉添薪仰古槐。
今日俸錢過十萬，
與君營奠復營齋。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

The youngest and most beloved daughter you were of an esteemed lineage,
Yet you married me, a reserved scholar without office but a trying life.
You searched the bottom drawer to provide me with better clothing, and
You handed me your golden hairpins persuading me to pawn them for some wine.

You contented with having wild vegetables and bean leaves for meals,
You settled for using fallen leaves for fire and for more you'd old pagoda trees admire.
Now I have achieved a salary of a hundred thousand coins,
Yet I can only hold memorials with religious offerings in remembrance of our time.

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中文原文﹕

王濬樓船下益州，
金陵王氣黯然收。
千尋鐵鎖沈江底，
一片降旛出石頭。

人世幾回傷往事，
山形依舊枕寒流。
從今四海為家日，
故壘蕭蕭蘆荻秋。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

From Yizhou Wang Jun led the warships downstream,
Completely paled into insignificant was Wu's kingship in Jinling.
Sunken to the riverbed were gigantic iron locks designed to hold back Wang's fleet,
Over the Stone Castle flew a wave of white flags admitting defeat.

Though life goes on, times past continue to sentiments evoke,
Yet mountains do not orientation change and through them flow cold waters of streams.
Territories of different corners have since been unified and one country become,
Among rustling reeds ancient forts and castles still stand for visitors to history read.

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中文原文﹕

城上高樓接大荒，
海天愁思正茫茫。
驚風亂颭芙蓉水，
密雨斜侵薜荔牆。

嶺樹重遮千里目，
江流曲似九迴腸。
共來百越文身地，
猶自音書滯一鄉。

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

Up high on the town tower, view of the distant is one of fields expanding into the wilds,
Resembling the vastness of skies, oceans and the restless melancholy within me.
A gust of wind comes to ripple the lake and hibiscus blossoms,
Slanting a drizzle onto walls overgrown with vine and leaves.

Mountain ranges are dense with trees obscuring even the best of eyesight,
Winding and convoluted like the intestines are the rivers and streams.
To the south-eastern land of body tattoos we are collectively assigned,
Each to an isolated county where word and correspondence rarely one another reach.

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中文原文﹕

雲開遠見漢陽城，
猶是孤帆一日程。
估客晝眠知浪靜，
舟人夜語覺潮生。

三湘愁鬢逢秋色，
萬里歸心對月明。
舊業已隨征戰盡，
更堪江上鼓鼙聲！

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

As the skies clear and clouds part I see the town of Hanyang in the distance,
It looks to takes another day under sail before we there arrive.
While merchants sleep through calm waters during the day,
Boatmen whisper of upcoming undercurrents at night.

Autumn colours of the tri-region of Xiang contrast my blues and greying sideburns,
Clear under the moon is my wish to home return through thousands of miles.
Much of family property must have perished in the upheaval,
Yet along the river there continue to resound blaring bugles and drum strikes!

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中文原文﹕

鶯啼燕語報新年，
馬邑龍堆路幾千。
家住層城鄰漢苑，
心隨明月到胡天。

機中錦字論長恨，
樓上花枝笑獨眠。
為問元戎竇車騎，
何時返旆勒燕然？

英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕

Orioles warble and swallows coo heralding another new year,
Horse Town and Yardang to the north and west are thousands of miles from here.
As I reside within a heavily walled estate next to what used to be the royal gardens of Han,
How I wish my heart could fly like the moon and Hun skies reach.

I could only stitch cryptic verses of grief on piece after piece of embroidery,
Upstairs blossoms have blossoms for company teasing how alone I sleep.
May I ask the triumphant General Dou of Han,
When shall there be a victorious return like the legend inscribed on the Yanran stele?

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