<Header>
<Author: 杜甫>
<Title: 羌村 三>
<Format: 格式不明>
<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: HOMECOMING III>
<BookPage: 190>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 0>
<End Header>
<Poem>
羣雞正亂叫，
客至雞鬬爭。
驅雞上樹木，
始聞叩柴荆。
父老四五人，
問我久遠行。
手中各有攜，
傾榼濁復清。
苦辭酒味薄，
黍地無人耕。
兵革既未息，
兒童盡東征。
請爲父老歌，
艱難塊深情。
歌罷仰天歎，
四座淚縱橫。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
The cocks were screaming all at once,
Fighting as the guests approached.
Not till we had shooed them up the trees,
Did we hear knocking at the gate.
Patriarchs four or five had come
To ask about my wanderings,
Each with his gift to me of wine
That varied in its quality.
They apologised for its thinness by
The want of men in the paddy fields,
For since the war dragged on and on,
Their boys were all at the eastern front…
"May I sing for you old gentlemen
Whose kindness shames my indigence?"
My singing ended, eyeing the sky
I sighed, and all at the table wept.
<End Translation>