無家別 杜甫

三別(其三)     杜甫(712-770)

無家別
寂寞天寶後，園廬但蒿藜。我里百餘家，世亂各東西。
存者無消息，死者委塵泥。賤子因陣敗，歸來尋舊蹊。
行久見空巷，日瘦氣慘淒。但對狐與貍，豎毛怒我啼。
四鄰何所有，一二老寡妻。宿鳥戀本枝，安辭且窮棲。
方春獨荷鋤，日暮還灌畦。縣吏知我至，召令習鼓鼙。
雖從本州役，內顧無所攜。近行止一身，遠去終轉迷。
家鄉既蕩盡，遠近理亦齊。永痛長病母，五年委溝谿。
生我不得力，終身兩酸嘶。人生無家別，何以為蒸藜。

A Triplet of Parting Elegies (No. 3)    Du Fu (712-770)
Parting of the Dislodged     
In the wake of the straitened Tianbao epoch,
Villages are rendered desolately destitute and spoiled,
Everywhere swarming with briers and brambles,
My village used to have a hundred or so households,
Now they are scattered everywhere amid the upheavals,
Those still alive I’ve no way to know,
Those dead are consigned to the dust in the wild,
After the defeat of the Ye City battle,
I come back to my homeland to ferret my old household,
Only empty alleys are what I behold,
The sun seems turning pale,
Foxes and jackals howl at me with raised bristles,
Only one or two old widows are left in my previous neighbouring households,
Birds stick around hankering for their original roosting bough,
I linger in my homeland and refuse elsewhere to go,
I’ve decided to stay at my original home of abode,
It’s spring, to the fields I bring my hoe,
Dusks falls, in the fields I still toil,
Knowing I’ve returned, the prefecture official
Draft me again into the battle drills,
This time serving near my own place I am haled,
There is nothing left at my home I could bring and avail,
I can only make myself available if it is somewhere vicinal,
If it is somewhere far away I can still get lost on the road,
Since there is nothing left at my house of old,
Far or near it is the same for me to go,
My greatest pang of all,
All the pains my ailing mother these years had swallowed,
Died for five years but I still haven’t given her a proper burial,
All her life she had not got any care from me as a son filial,
Both of us have had lives grievously painful,
Departing from an already dislodged home,
What sort of a life this could people call.