<Header>
<Author: 杜甫>
<Title: 兵車行>
<Format: 樂府詩>
<Year: 2005>
<BookName: English Translation of 300 Tang Poems>
<Translator: 唐一鶴>
<TranslatedTitle: Chariots Melody>
<BookPage: 164-166>
<UsedPage: 3>
<Feature: 0>
<End Header>
<Poem>
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。
牽衣頓足闌道哭，
哭聲直上干雲霄。
道傍過者問行人，
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，
千村萬落生荆杞。
縱有健婦把鋤犂，
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。
生女猶是嫁比鄰，
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。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
Chariots are rumbling, horses are neighing;
Bows and arrows on waists,
The newly recruited soldiers are on the marching.
Fathers, mothers, wives and children have all turned
Out to see their dear ones off by the road;
The Xianyang Bridge is submerged in dust rolling.
Pulling sleeves and stamping feet,
They've blocked the road, weeping and crying;
Voice has risen high up into clouds weeping.
The passer-by asks a marcher:
"What's all this about?"
The marcher simply says:
"Conscriptions are busily on going."
He was conscripted at the age of fifteen
To defend the river in the north
And is now still engaged in reclamation
At Western Barracks at the age of forty.
He was a head-wrapped youth when he was conscripted,
And has now returned white-haired
Still on garrison at the frontier,
Where blood is flowing like sea water;
But Emperor Han Wu
Still set his mind on opening up frontiers.
"Haven't you heard, Sir:
In the two hundred prefectures of the Han Dynasty
East of the Hua Mountain
Thousands of villages were overgrown with brambles
On the plain.
Although there remained healthy women
Working with ploughs and hoes,
Crops were growing in the fields
Without regular ridges and furrows.
Qin's soldiers, who were used to tough battles,
Were driven like dogs and cocks to fight, also.
Now that you ask me to say something;
To express my hatred how dare I say anything?
In the winter this year,
Soldiers west of the Hangu Pass haven't
Stopped fighting. 
County magistrates are tax-payment urging:
From where is the money for tax-payment coming?
If we had knowm
It brought no good giving birth to boys,
We'd prefer giving birth to girls rather than boys.
A daughter can be married to a neighbour family;
He'll be buried beneath grasses, giving birth to a boy.
Don't you see, Sir:
At the farthest end of the Qinghai Bay.
No people have collected the white bones
Ever since the ancient days.
New ghosts are complaining against wrongs and grievances;
Old ghosts are weeping.
On overcast and rainy days
You hear sobbing and whimpering.
<End Translation>