<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 效陶潛體詩十六首(并序) 七>
<Format: 格律不明>
<Year: 2000>
<BookName: Po Chu-I Selected Poems>
<Translator: BURTON WATSON>
<TranslatedTitle: Sixteen Poems in the Style of T’ao Ch’ien (the seventh)>
<BookPage: 46-47>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
中秋三五夜，
明月在前軒。
臨觴忽不飲，
憶我平生歡。
我有同心人，
邈邈崔與錢。
我有忘形友，
迢迢李與元。
或飛青雲上，
或落江湖間。
與我不相見，
於今四五（一作三四）年。
我無縮地術，
君非馭風仙。
安得明月下，
四人來晤言。
良夜信難得，
佳期杳無緣。
明月又不駐（一作住），
漸下西南天。
豈無他時會，
惜此清景前。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
Fifteenth night of the mid-autumn month,
a full moon in front of the eaves:
peering into the cup abruptly I stop drinking,
recalling companions of past times;
those who are one with me in heart,
Ts'ui and Ch'ien far far away;
friends with whom I can forget outside things,
Li and Yuan, both so distant;
some soaring over the blue clouds,
some thrust aside among rivers and lakes.
It's three or four years
since we've seen each other.
I have no magic to shrink up the earth,
you're not immortals who ride the wind－
how can the four of you journey here
to chat with me under this bright moon?
A fine night is hard to come by,
prospects for our happy reunion are dim,
and the bright moon－it too will not linger,
but bit by bit sinks in the southwest sky.
Surely we'll meet again sometime－
only too bad it couldn't be in a setting like this!
<End Translation>