University of Virginia Library

樂府 王昌齡 塞下曲

飲馬渡秋水, 水寒風似刀。
平沙日未沒, 黯黯見臨洮。
昔日長城戰, 咸言意氣高;
黃塵足今古, 白骨亂蓬蒿。

Folk-song-styled-verse
Wang Changling UNDER A BORDER-FORTRESS

Drink, my horse, while we cross the autumn water! -
The stream is cold and the wind like a sword,
As we watch against the sunset on the sandy plain,
Far, far away, shadowy Lingtao.
Old battles, waged by those long walls,
Once were proud on all men's tongues.
But antiquity now is a yellow dust,
Confusing in the grasses its ruins and white bones.