<Header>
<Author: 李商隱>
<Title: 錦瑟>
<Format: 七言律詩>
<Year: 1947>
<BookName: THE WHITE PONY: An Anthology of Chinese Poetry from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Newly Translated>
<Translator: Robert Payne>
<TranslatedTitle: THE INLAID PSALTERY>
<BookPage: 275>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
錦瑟無端五十絃，
一絃一柱思華年。
莊生曉夢迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心託杜鵑。
滄海月明珠有淚，
藍田日暖玉生煙。
此情可待成追憶，
只是當時已惘然。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
I wonder why the inlaid psaltery has fifty strings?
Every string and peg evokes the beautiful years.
Dawn-dreaming Chuang-tzu, the hovering butterfly:
In spring the Emperor's heart haunting the cuckoos,
Moonlight in the blue sea, pearls shedding tears,
In the warm sun the jade in the blue fields engendering
smoke—
So should our loves endure, being filled with memory;
But already these days are fading into the years.
<End Translation>