<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 新樂府 賣炭翁 苦官市也>
<Format: 樂府詩>
<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 CHARCOAL-BURNER>
<BookPage: 224>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 1, 3>
<End Header>
<Poem>
賣炭翁，
伐薪燒炭南山中。
滿面塵灰煙火色，
兩鬢蒼蒼十指黑。
賣炭得錢何所營，
身上衣裳口中食。
可憐身上衣正單，
心憂炭賤願天寒。
夜來城上一尺雪，
曉駕炭車輾冰轍。
牛困人飢日已高，
市南門外泥中歇。
翩翩兩騎來是誰，
黃衣使者白衫兒。
手把文書口稱敕，
迴車叱牛牽向北。
一車炭，
千餘斤，
官使驅將惜不得。
半匹紅紗一丈綾，
繫向牛頭充炭直。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
On the hill to the south of the city
The old charcoal-burner burns the wood.
His face is dusty and covered with smoke,
His hair is grey at the temples, his fingers black.
What would he desire from the money he gains
Except garments to wear and food to eat?
Yet frozen to the marrow in his thin coat
He prays for a colder day,
Lest the price of charcoal should drop.
During the night a foot of snow fell,
Whitening the world outside the town;
Breaking the ice, the old man
In the early morning takes his charcoal cart along;
But the beast is exhausted, the man hungry.
While the sun is riding high and the cart is standing
In the mud and refuse outside the South Gate,
Who should he see coming gracefully on two horses,
But royal messengers in their white and yellow livery,
Shouting aloud with papers in their hands?
He guides the cart north, lashing at the animal,
With cargo weighing a thousand catty.
Twenty yards of gauze and eight of sarsenet
Are tied to the head of the ox to pay for the fuel.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
0
On the hill to the south of the city The old charcoal-burner burns the wood.
His face is dusty and covered with smoke,
His hair is grey at the temples, his fingers black.
What would he desire from the money he gains
Except garments to wear and food to eat?
Yet frozen to the marrow in his thin coat
He prays for a colder day, lest the price of charcoal should drop.
During the night a foot of snow fell, whitening the world outside the town;
Breaking the ice, the old man in the early morning takes his charcoal cart along;
But the beast is exhausted, the man hungry. While the sun is riding high and the cart is standing
In the mud and refuse outside the South Gate,
Who should he see coming gracefully on two horses,
But royal messengers in their white and yellow livery,
Shouting aloud with papers in their hands?
He guides the cart north, lashing at the animal,
With cargo weighing
a thousand catty.
0
Twenty yards of gauze and eight of sarsenet
Are tied to the head of the ox to pay for the fuel.
<End Formatted Translation>