<Header>
<Author: 王維>
<Title: 哭殷遙>
<Format: 五言古詩>
<Year: 1973>
<BookName: Poems of Wang Wei>
<Translator: Robinson, G. W>
<TranslatedTitle: Lament for Yin Yao>
<BookPage: 124>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 2, 3>
<End Header>
<Poem>
人生能幾何，
畢竟歸無形。
念君等為死，
萬事傷人情。
慈母未及葬，
一女纔十齡。
泱漭寒郊外，
蕭條聞哭聲。
浮雲為蒼茫，
飛鳥不能鳴。
行人何寂寞，
白日自淒清。
憶昔君在時，
問我學無生。
勸君苦不早，
令君無所成。
故人各有贈，
又不及生平。
負爾非一途，
慟哭返柴荊。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
What is a man's life span?
In the end he returns to formlessness
I think how you too have died
And how much there is to afflict a man's heart
Your good mother still unburied
Your one daughter only ten years old
In the cold vastness beyond the walls
I hear desolate the sound of lamentation
Floating clouds male the expanse of the skies
Birds fly and do not sing
That traveller—how lonely
And even the sun gleams cold.
I remember how when you were still alive
You asked me to teach you about the absolute
And I encouraged you 0 $(but now I grieve)$
That 0 $(I was dilatory)$ and so you failed—
All your friends have made you offerings
And these also are too late for your lifetime
Not along one way only did I fail you—
And I am weeping as I go back home.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
What is a man's life span?
In the end he returns to formlessness
I think how you too have died
And how much there is to afflict a man's heart
Your good mother still unburied
Your one daughter only ten years old
In the cold vastness beyond the walls
I hear desolate the sound of lamentation
Floating clouds male the expanse of the skies
Birds fly and do not sing
That traveller—how lonely
And even the sun gleams cold.
I remember how when you were still alive
You asked me to teach you about the absolute
And I encouraged you 0 $(but now I grieve)$
That 0 $(I was dilatory)$ and so you failed—
All your friends have made you offerings
And these also are too late for your lifetime
Not along one way only did I fail you—
And I am weeping as I go back home.
<End Formatted Translation>