垂老別 杜甫

三別(其二)     杜甫(712-770)

垂老別

四郊未寧靜，垂老不得安。子孫陣亡盡，焉用身獨完！

投杖出門去，同行為辛酸。幸有牙齒存，所悲骨髓乾。
男兒既介冑，長揖別上官。老妻臥路啼，歲暮衣裳單。
孰知是死別，且復傷其寒。此去必不歸，還聞勸加餐。
土門壁甚堅，杏園度亦難。勢異鄴城下，縱死時猶寬。
人生有離合，豈擇衰盛端！憶昔少壯日，遲回竟長嘆。
萬國盡征戍，烽火被岡巒。積屍草木腥，流血川原丹。
何鄉為樂土，安敢尚盤桓！棄絕蓬室居，塌然摧肺肝。

A Triplet of Parting Elegies (No. 2)        Du Fu  (712-770)
Parting of the Old Couple     

The environs are treacherous and unpeaceful amid the upheavals,

We still cannot live in peace even getting old and senile,
Our scions have all perished in the battles,
Such being the case what is the use of my own survival,
Throwing away my cane to the battlefield I go,
Seeing this people on the way bewail for my doles,
Luckily my teeth are still useful,
But my bones are already fragile,
Donning my helmet and army apparel,
I bid my officer farewell,
My senile wife lies weeping by the road,
Being nearly the end of the year she is still in her thin ragged clothes,
This parting is forever we both know,
I still fear she could be scathed by the chills,
She knows this parting is eternal,
Repeatedly reminding me not to let my stomach get empty and growl,
The walls of the Mud Gate Pass are rugged and stout,
The Apricot Garden County is too precipitous into to smuggle,
It’s a great difference to the battle under the Ye City Wall,
In face of death there you still had the leeway to struggle,
Sundering bales, reunion hails, life is agitatingly volatile,
They all come regardless of you being young or old, fare bad or well,
Recalling the days when I was young and youthful,
I used to waste my time sighing to no avail,
Now the country is full of draftees going to battles,
Beacon fires are all over the mountains and knolls,
Corpses are heaping up on grasses and woodlands emitting stench of extreme foul,
Draining bloods are dyeing red plains and river flows,
In these tumultuous times everyone here lost their safehold,
How dare I shirk my duties for my country and still linger idle,
Giving up my rugged hovel,
Just let myself be ripped apart amid a world all in a tumble.