Written For Ban Anxian Who Left His Government Official Position and Refuses to Return: Two Poems
跋 澹 庵 先 生 辞, 工 都 侍 郎， 答 诏 不 允： 二 首
高 卧 崖 州 二 十 年
黑 头 去 国 白 头 还。
身 居 紫 禁 莺 花 里
心 在 青 原 水 石 间。
愿 挽 天 河 洗 北 年
老 臣 底 用 紫 荷 为？
丹 心 一 寸 凌 霜 雪
只 有 隆 兴 圣 主 知！
Ba Dan An Xian Sheng Ci Gong Dou Shi Lang, Da Zhao Bu Yun: Er Shou
Gao wo ya zhou er shi nian
Hei tou qu guo bai tou huan.
Shen ju zi ying hua li
Xin zai qing yuan shui shi jian.
Yuan wan tian he xi bei yi
Lao chen di yong zi he wei?
Dan xin yi cun ling shuang xue
Zhi you long xing sheng zhu zhi!
Written For Ban Anxian Who Left His Government Official Position and Refuses to Return: Two Poems
Twenty years of Hainan Island life was free and easy
Arrived with black hair, now going home with white hair.
Life inside the imperial palace full of flowers and orioles
In mind-heart, my hometown represents waters and rock solitudes.
I could spend some time washing away the Yi northern nomads
Why this old official not useful any more for the palace royalty?
Coming to be comfortable within the inches of frost and snow
Only have and know of one sacred emperor, Long Xing in his two year reign.
Notes:
Long Xing: The years of 1163-1164 AD. The name of the initial era within the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, the second emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. A metaphor for the beginning or start of a grand prosperity.