<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 念金鑾子二首其一>
<Format: 五言古詩>
<Year: 1919>
<BookName: Translation from the Chinese>
<Translator: Arthur Waley>
<TranslatedTitle: Remembering Golden Bells>
<BookPage: 152>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 0>
<End Header>
<Poem>
衰病四十身，
嬌癡三歲女。
非男猶勝無，
慰情時一撫。
一朝舍我去，
魂影無處所。
況念夭札時，
嘔啞初學語。
始知骨肉愛，
乃是憂悲聚。
唯思未有前，
以理遣傷苦。
忘懷日已久，
三度移寒暑。
今日一傷心，
因逢舊乳母。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
Ruined and ill,–a man of two score;
Pretty and guileless,–a girl of three.
Not a boy,–but still better than nothing:
To soothe one's feeling,–from time to time a kiss!
There came a day,–they suddenly took her from me;
Her soul's shadow wandered I know not where.
And when I remember how just at the time she died
She lisped strange sounds, beginning to learn to talk,
Then I know that the ties of flesh and blood
Only bind us to a load of grief and sorrow.
At last, by thinking of the time before she was born,
By thought and reason I drove the pain away.
Since my heart forgot her, many days have passed
And three times winter has changed to spring.
This morning, for a litle, the old grief came back,
Because, in the road, I met her foster-nurse.
<End Translation>