十年生死兩茫茫
不思量  自難忘
千里孤墳  無處話凄涼
縱使相逢應不識
塵滿面  鬢如霜

夜來幽夢忽還鄉
小軒窗  正梳妝
相顧無言  惟有淚千行
料得年年腸斷處
明月夜  短松岡

Remembering my Deceased Wife in Dream        江紹倫譯
To the Tune “Riverside Town”   

Ten years since your death you and I drifted in worlds so vague
Even as I try not to contemplate
Your death I can’t negate
With you in a lonely grave ten thousand li away
To whom could I my grief convey
If we should by chance meet you may know me not
Face dusty
Hair frost-grey

At last in a dream I returned home in haste
Sitting by the little window
You were doing make-up with so much grace
We met with not a single word to say
Only tears rolled a thousand lines astray
I recall I visited your lone grave every year in grief
At moonlit nights
On a short pine rise

蒼蒼竹林寺    杳杳鐘聲晚
荷笠帶夕陽    青山獨歸遠

Seeing Monk Ling Che on His Way         江紹倫譯

Green green the temple stands
Late late vespers toll
His straw cloak bearing the setting sun
He stalks the green hills to go far

一路經行處   莓苔見履痕
白雲依靜渚   春草閉閑門
過雨看松色   隨山到水源
溪花與禪意   相對亦忘言

Visiting Daoist Chang by the Stream           江紹倫譯

Along the way I had become aware
Footprints touched the moss ground to tear
White clouds nestle above to shade the moor
Lush grass stopped in front of the solitary door
Clean pine needles tell me about visits of rain
I follow the mountain path to reach the spring
Between wild flowers and Chan wisdom I contemplate
No words are needed to communicate

獨在異鄉為異客        每逢佳節倍思親
遙知兄弟登高處        遍插茱萸少一人

To my Brothers on Double-Nine Festival                江紹倫譯

Alone a stranger I remain in foreign land
At every festival I pine for my dear ones in fervent
From here I can see my brothers ascending the mountains with fun
Everywhere they plant dogwood spray but find the team missing one

積雨空林煙火遲      蒸藜炊黍餉東菑
漠漠水田飛白鷺      陰陰夏木囀黃鸝
山中習靜觀朝槿      松下清齋折露葵
野老與人爭席罷      海鷗何事更相疑

At My Wanchuan Retreat During Rain                   江紹倫譯

The rain-soaked forest has my firewood delayed
I cook millet and vegetable to entertain
Over the spacious water fields egrets glide
In the shaded summer woods yellow orioles cry
Quietly I watch the althea thrive in the morning sun
And dine with friendly pines savouring dewy mallows with fun
A rustic old man I’m now folks befriend me in delight
Why seagulls stay in air suspicious and not alight

中歲頗好道    晚家南山陲
興來每獨往    勝事空自知
行到水窮處    坐看雲起時
偶然值林叟    談笑無還期

Retirement at South Hill                   江紹倫譯

I became at mid-life a true believer of Dao
I retire to settle at the foot of South Hill when old
Here I loiter at will with not much in mind
And review in solitude the good deeds I’ve left behind
I saunter to where the mountain stream no longer flows
I sit waiting to watch rising clouds afloat
By chance I meet a firewood gatherer as I roam
We chat and cheer forgetting ’tis time to return home

明月幾時有 把酒問青天 不知天上宫闕
今夕是何年 我欲乘風歸去 又恐瓊樓玉宇
高處不勝寒 起舞弄清影 何似在人間

轉朱閣 低绮户 照無眠 不應有恨
何事長向别時圆 人有悲歡離合
月有陰晴圓缺 此事古難全
但願人長久 千里共嬋娟

Tune of “Prelude to Water melody” 江紹倫譯 

Whence will the moon shine this way again
I ask in earnest a wine-cup in hand
Where-in the palaces high up in sky
What year could it be tonight
I’d love to return there riding the wind
But I fear where these towers and jade palaces are in
The chill and altitude are too much for my liking
Dancing with my shadow in tow
I feel ’tis a better place here with people I know

In the ornate mansion red
Behind lowered drapes embroidery spread
Such glare kept me sleepless in bed
I should have no lingering spite or hate
O Moon why do you always shine when people separate
Among men sorrow joy separation or togetherness are but normal life state
For you Moon there are times of shade or shine fullness and wane
None had always been perfect since time immemorial 

Let’s keep our love true everlasting
And share the moon bright and trusting

 
Remembrance in Mid-Autumn – to the tune of “Barcarole Prelude”
translated by Father John Turner

“When did this glorious moon begin to be?’
Cup in hand, I asked of the azure sky:
And wondered in the palaces of the air
What calendar this night do they go by.
Yes, I would wish to mount the winds and wander there
At home; but dread those onyx towers and halls of jade
Set so immeasurably cold and high.
To tread a measure, to support with fleshless shade,
How alien to our frail mortality!

Her light round scarlet pavilion, ‘neath broidered screen, down streams
On me that sleepless lie.
Ah, vain indeed is my complaining:
But why must she beam at the full on those that sundered sigh?
As men have their weal and woe, their parting and meeting, it seems
The moon has her dark and light, her phases of fulness and waning.
Never is seen perfection things that die.
Yet would I crave one solitary boon:
Long be we linked with light of the fair moon
Over large leagues of distance, thou and I.

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

On the Front                                       江紹倫譯       

My horse had its drink while crossing the autumn river
With freezing water and sharp wind it felt like having a sword sever
On the dessert plain the sun was vivid after setting
In the gathering darkness I saw the distant town Lintao looming
Battles were waged at the Great Wall in by-gone days
What noble spirit past heroes had displayed
Events old and new now buried under sand no longer pertain
Where scanty weeds grow white bones remain

少小離鄉老大回      鄉音難改鬢毛衰
兒童相見不相識      笑問客從何處來

On Homecoming                                江紹倫譯

I left home while young and return in old age
My speech remains same while my scanty hair grows grey
Children here see me but know not my identity
Beaming they ask where I came originally