<Header>
<Author: 李頎>
<Title: 古意>
<Format: 古詩>
<Year: 2009>
<BookName: Three Hundred TANG POEMS>
<Translator: Harris, Peter>
<TranslatedTitle: Something told as of old>
<BookPage: 139>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 1>
<End Header>
<Poem>
男兒事長征，
少小幽燕客。
賭勝馬蹄下，
由來輕七尺。
殺人莫敢前，
鬚如蝟毛磔。
黃雲隴底白雲飛，
未得報恩不能歸。
遼東小婦年十五，
慣彈琵琶解歌舞。
今爲羌笛出塞聲，
使我三軍淚如雨。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
As boys they did service with the frontier troops,
Youthful adventurers from You and Yan.
They tested their prowess under horses’ hooves –
Then as now men careless of their lives.
Now when they’re killing, no one dares come forward’
Their beards stick out like bristling hedgehog spines.

Below the ridge of sandy clouds there are white clouds flying;
Their ruler’s grace is not yet requited – they cannot yet go home.
There’s a young woman from Liaodong, fifteen years of age,
Who knows the lute, and can sing and dance, and now is playing the tune
‘Going beyond the frontier pass’ on a Tibetan flute,
Making the soldiers in our legion shed their tears like rain.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
As boys they did service with the frontier troops,
Youthful adventurers from You and Yan.
They tested their prowess under horses’ hooves –
Then as now men careless of their lives.
Now when they’re killing, no one dares come forward’
Their beards stick out like bristling hedgehog spines.
Below the ridge of sandy clouds there are white clouds flying;
Their ruler’s grace is not yet requited – they cannot yet go home.
There’s a young woman from Liaodong, fifteen years of age,
Who knows the lute, and can sing and dance, and now is playing the tune
‘Going beyond the frontier pass’ on a Tibetan flute,
Making the soldiers in our legion shed their tears like rain.
<End Formatted Translation>