University of Virginia Library

蔡女昔造胡笳聲， 一彈一十有八拍。
胡人落淚沾邊草， 漢使斷腸對歸客。
古戍蒼蒼烽火寒， 大荒沈沈飛雪白。
先拂聲絃後角羽， 四郊秋葉驚摵摵。
董夫子，通神明， 深山竊聽來妖精。
言遲更速皆應手， 將往復旋如有情。
空山百鳥散還合， 萬里浮雲陰且晴。
嘶酸雛雁失群夜， 斷絕胡兒戀母聲。
川為靜其波， 鳥亦罷其鳴；
烏孫部落家鄉遠， 邏娑沙塵哀怨生。
幽音變調忽飄灑， 長風吹林雨墮瓦；
迸泉颯颯飛木末， 野鹿呦呦走堂下。
長安城連東掖垣， 鳳凰池對青瑣門，
高才脫略名與利， 日夕望君抱琴至。

When this melody for the flageolet was made by Lady Cai,
When long ago one by one she sang its eighteen stanzas,
Even the Tartars were shedding tears into the border grasses,
And the envoy of China was heart-broken, turning back home with his escort.
...Cold fires now of old battles are grey on ancient forts,
And the wilderness is shadowed with white new-flying snow.
...When the player first brushes the Shang string and the Jue and then the Yu,
Autumn-leaves in all four quarters are shaken with a murmur.
Dong, the master,
Must have been taught in heaven.
Demons come from the deep pine-wood and stealthily listen
To music slow, then quick, following his hand,
Now far away, now near again, according to his heart.
A hundred birds from an empty mountain scatter and return;
Three thousand miles of floating clouds darken and lighten;
A wildgoose fledgling, left behind, cries for its flock,
And a Tartar child for the mother he loves.
Then river waves are calmed
And birds are mute that were singing,
And Wuzu tribes are homesick for their distant land,
And out of the dust of Siberian steppes rises a plaintive sorrow.
...Suddenly the low sound leaps to a freer tune,
Like a long wind swaying a forest, a downpour breaking tiles,
A cascade through the air, flying over tree-tops.
...A wild deer calls to his fellows. He is running among the mansions
In the corner of the capital by the Eastern Palace wall....
Phoenix Lake lies opposite the Gate of Green Jade;
But how can fame and profit concern a man of genius?
Day and night I long for him to bring his lute again.