古柏行 杜甫

古柏行       杜甫 (712 - 770 )

孔明廟前有老柏，柯如青銅根如石。

霜皮溜雨四十圍，黛色參天二千尺。
君臣已與時際會，樹木猶為人愛惜。
雲來氣接巫峽長，月出寒通雪山白。
憶昨路繞錦亭東，先主武侯同閟宮。
崔嵬枝幹郊原古，窈窕丹青戶牖空。
落落盤據雖得地，冥冥孤高多烈風。
扶持自是神明力，正直元因造化功。
大廈如傾要梁棟，萬牛迴首邱山重。
不露文章世已驚，未辭剪伐誰能送。
苦心豈免容螻蟻，香葉終經宿鸞鳳。
志士幽人莫怨嗟，古來材大難為用。

 

Ballad of the Old Cypress               Du Fu (712 - 770 )

In front of the temple of Zhuge Liang there is an old cypress,

Its roots are like rocks and its branches bronze,
Its rimy rain-washed bark on its great girth measures forty spans,
Two thousand feet into the heaven its jet-coloured top rises,
King and statesman had long fulfilled their historical missions,
But it continues to be fondly cherished,
When the clouds come, vapours extend its spread to join the long Wu Gorge’s mists,
As the moon rises, the cypress chills merge with the Snowy Mountain’s whiteness,
I remember a year or so ago, to the east of the Brocade River pavilion where the road bypassed,
In the same shrine where the First Ruler and Zhuge Liang were vested,
On the ancient plain outside the city there were also high-rising cypresses,
The paint-work of the dark interior sulked through desolated doors and windows,
But this cypress, firmly holding the ground with coil-like grasps,
Rises solitarily into the gloomy sky withholding the fierce blasts,
Nothing could have kept it standing for so long but the power of Divine Providence,
Its uprightness must be the work of the Creative forces’ synergies,
If pillars and beams are needed should a great hall collapse,
Ten thousand oxen might turn their heads wondering what a mountain of albatross,
Without a craftsman’s garnish, it has already had the world stand aghast,
No one could ever carry it away if it were felled, yet the axe it has never refused,
From the ants its bitter heart could not have got loose,
On its scented leaves phoenixes always roost,
Man of ambition need not deplore if you are still living in obscurity,
From of old the really great have never been easy in finding their uses.