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車轔轔， 馬蕭蕭，
行人弓箭各在腰。
耶孃妻子走相送， 塵埃不見咸陽橋。
牽衣頓足攔道哭， 哭聲直上干雲霄。
道旁過者問行人， 行人但云點行頻。
或從十五北防河， 便至四十西營田。
去時里正與裹頭， 歸來頭白還戍邊。
邊亭流血成海水， 武皇開邊意未已。
君不聞， 漢家山東二百州，
千村萬落生荊杞？
縱有健婦把鋤犁， 禾生隴畝無東西。
況復秦兵耐苦戰， 被驅不異犬與雞。
長者雖有問， 役夫敢申恨；
且如今年冬， 未休關西卒。
縣官急索租， 租稅從何出？
信知生男惡， 反是生女好；
生女猶得嫁比鄰， 生男埋沒隨百草。
君不見， 青海頭，
古來白骨無人收？
新鬼煩冤舊鬼哭， 天陰雨濕聲啾啾。

The war-chariots rattle,
The war-horses whinny.
Each man of you has a bow and a quiver at his belt.
Father, mother, son, wife, stare at you going,
Till dust shall have buried the bridge beyond Changan.
They run with you, crying, they tug at your sleeves,
And the sound of their sorrow goes up to the clouds;
And every time a bystander asks you a question,
You can only say to him that you have to go.
...We remember others at fifteen sent north to guard the river
And at forty sent west to cultivate the campfarms.
The mayor wound their turbans for them when they started out.
With their turbaned hair white now, they are still at the border,
At the border where the blood of men spills like the sea --
And still the heart of Emperor Wu is beating for war.
...Do you know that, east of China's mountains, in two hundred districts
And in thousands of villages, nothing grows but weeds,
And though strong women have bent to the ploughing,
East and west the furrows all are broken down?
...Men of China are able to face the stiffest battle,
But their officers drive them like chickens and dogs.
Whatever is asked of them,
Dare they complain?
For example, this winter
Held west of the gate,
Challenged for taxes,
How could they pay?
...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck -
It is very much better to have a daughter
Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,
While under the sod we bury our boys.
...Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore
At all the old white bones forsaken --
New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,
Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.