Du Fu: Express One’s Feelings and Aspirations: Five Poems: No. 1

 

Express One’s Feelings and Aspirations: Five Poems: No. 1

 

咏 怀 古 迹 :五 首
(1)
支 离 东 北 风 尘 际
漂 泊 西 南 天 地 间。
三 峡 楼 台 淹 日 月
五 溪 衣 服 共 云 山。
羯 胡 事 主 终 无 赖
词 客 哀 时 且 未 还。
庾 信 平 生 最 萧 瑟
暮 年 诗 赋 动 江 关。

 

Yong Huai Gu Ji: Wu Shou

(1)

Zhi li dong bei feng chen ji
Piao bo xi nan tian di jian.
San xia lou tai yan ri yue
Wu xi yi fu gong yun shan.

Jie hu shi zhu zhong wu lai
Ci ke ai shi qie wei huan.
Yu xin ping sheng zui xiao se
Mu nian shi fu dong jiang guan.

Express One’s Feelings and Aspirations: Five Poems: No. 1

Dusty border winds from the fragmented northeast
Now in the southwest, drifting wanderer’s life between heaven and earth.
Three gorges of buildings and towers, wasting nights and days
Five stream fashions in remote cloudy mountains.

An Lushan inherited his father’s “blame others” ways
For a long time this poet still had times of sorrow.
All his life Yu Xin had to flee place after place
Poetry written in his declining years touched upon this nearby
river and mountain pass.

 

Notes:

An Lushan: (c. 703-757) Northern non-Han general who led the rebellion against the Tang Dynasty.

Yu Xin (513-581): As the Liang Dynasty fell in 557, Yu was placed under house arrest in the capital Chang’an. Three of his children were executed.