<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 長恨歌>
<Format: 七言古詩>
<Year: 1944>
<BookName: A FURTHER SELECTION FROM THE THREE HUNDRED POEMS OF THE T'ANG DYNASTY>
<Translator: SOAME JENYNS>
<TranslatedTitle: The Song of never-ending Grief>
<BookPage: 9-10>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 1, 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
漢皇重色思傾國，
御宇多年求不得。
楊家有女初長成，
養在深閨人未識。
天生麗質難自棄，
一朝選在君王側。
回眸一笑百媚生，
六宮粉黛無顏色。
春寒賜浴華清池，
溫泉水滑洗凝脂。
侍兒扶起嬌無力，
始是新承恩澤時。
雲鬢花顏金步搖，
芙蓉帳暖度春宵。
春宵苦短日高起，
從此君王不早朝。
承歡侍宴無閑暇，
春從春遊夜專夜。
後宮佳麗三千人，
三千寵愛在一身。
金屋妝成嬌侍夜，
玉樓宴罷醉和春。
姊妹弟兄皆列土，
可憐光彩生門戶。
遂令天下父母心，
不重生男重生女。
驪宮高處入青雲，
仙樂風飄處處聞。
緩歌慢舞凝絲竹，
盡日君王看不足。
漁陽鞞鼓動地來，
驚破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城闕煙塵生，
千乘萬騎西南行。
翠華搖搖行復止，
西出都門百餘里。
六軍不發無奈何，
宛轉蛾眉馬前死。
花鈿委地無人收，
翠翹金雀玉搔頭。
君王掩面救不得，
回看血淚相和流。
黃埃散漫風蕭索，
雲棧縈紆登劒閣。
峨嵋山下少人行，
旌旗無光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青，
聖主朝朝暮暮情。
行宮見月傷心色，
夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。
天旋日轉迴龍馭，
到此躊躇不能去。
馬嵬坡下泥土中，
不見玉顏空死處。
君臣相顧盡霑衣，
東望都門信馬歸。
歸來池苑皆依舊，
太液芙蓉未央柳。
芙蓉如面柳如眉，
對此如何不淚垂？
春風桃李花開夜，
秋雨梧桐葉落時。
西宮南苑多秋草，
宮葉滿階紅不埽。
棃園弟子白髮新，
椒房阿監青娥老。
夕殿螢飛思悄然，
孤燈挑盡未成眠。
遲遲鐘鼓初長夜，
耿耿星河欲曙天。
鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重，
翡翠衾寒誰與共。
悠悠生死別經年，
魂魄不曾來入夢。
臨邛道士鴻都客，
能以精誠致魂魄。
爲感君王展轉思，
遂教方士殷勤覓。
排空馭氣奔如電，
升天入地求之徧。
上窮碧落下黃泉，
兩處茫茫皆不見。
忽聞海上有仙山，
山在虛無縹緲間。
樓閣玲瓏五雲起，
其中綽約多仙子。
中有一人字太真，
雪膚花貌參差是。
金闕西廂叩玉扃，
轉教小玉報雙成。
聞道漢家天子使，
九華帳裏夢魂驚。
攬衣推枕起裴回，
珠箔銀屏邐迤開。
雲鬢半偏新睡覺，
花冠不整下堂來。
風吹仙袂飄颻舉，
猶似霓裳羽衣舞。
玉容寂莫淚闌干，
棃花一枝春帶雨。
含情凝睇謝君王，
一別音容兩渺茫。
昭陽殿裏恩愛絕，
蓬萊宮中日月長。
回頭下望人寰處，
不見長安見塵霧。
唯將舊物表深情，
鈿合金釵寄將去。
釵留一股合一扇，
釵擘黃金合分鈿。
但教心似金鈿堅，
天上人間會相見。
臨別殷勤重寄詞，
詞中有誓兩心知。
七月七日長生殿，
夜半無人私語時。
在天願作比翼鳥，
在地願爲連理枝。
天長地久有時盡，
此恨緜緜無絕期。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
THE Chinese Emperor, obsessed by beauty longed for one who might subvert the kingdom
In the Imperial palace he sought for many years but could not find her.
The Yang family had a daughter scarcely grown up
Brought up in the depths of the women's apartments, 
Unknown to anyone outside
Heaven had endowed her with graces that she herself could not disdain.
One day she is chosen to stand by the Emperor's side,
At the turn of her eyes, at the flash of her smile a hundred compliments are born;
Who of the powdered and pencilled favourites of the six palaces can compete with such beauty?
At the Imperial behest in the cool springtime she washes in the Hua-ch'ing pool;
Smooth and warm the fountain water washes her alabaster skin
The attendant maid supports languid loveliness
From this time the new arrival enjoys Imperial favour
Her cloud front coiffure, her painted face
Her hair ornaments, which swing as she walks
She spends the warm spring night within the hibiscus bed curtains;
Ah! How far oo fleeting was that spring night and how early the rising of the sun,
From this time onwards the Emperor gives no early audience.
She receives his favours and she waits on him at his feasts without break
She is always chosen for the spring excursion; chosen for the nightly carouse.
In the palace there are three thousand beauties,
But the favour that should have been extended to three thousand 
Is concentrated on the person of one.
In her "Golden Home" she beauties herself to attend him in the evening
The feasts of the jade tower ended 
She turns to him delirious with love.
Brothers and sisters, all are raised to noble rank;
Alas! for the ill-omened glories of the house in which she was born;
From this time onwards a parent's wish was not for the birth of sons, but of daughters.
The palace of Li towers into the azure sky
Fairy music is wafted on the breeze and is heard all round
Languid chanting and slow dancing linger to the sound of guitar and flute,
All day long the Emperor gazes upon her with never satiated eyes.
From Yü-yang comes the roll of drums that makes the earth tremble.
Fear scatters the song of the"Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Jacket." 
From the nine-towered gate towers smoke and dust rise
A thousand chariots, ten thousand horsemen go to the south-west,
Swaggering plumes go onwards, then halt.
From the gates of the capital they have gone a day's journey to the west
The six armies will go no further, there is no help for it
To appease them the moth-like eyebrows must die before their horses,
Flower-like jewellery is thrown to the ground and no one picks it up
Kingfisher feather work, golden birds and hairpins of jade lie there unclaimed,
The Emperor buries his face and cannot save her,
He looks back on the place where her blood and his tears flowed together.
The yellow dust is blown far and wide and the wind blows bleak and cold
From "Cloudy Pass" the road turns and winds up to the Sword Shelf.
Few walk beneath the shadow of Omei Shan,
The gleam of their banners is darkened; the sun is dimmed.
Oh! Jade-like are the streams of Szechwan, green are its hills!
The monarch morning and evening is overcome by his feelings
Gazing on the moon from his temporary palace its beauty hurts him
In the evening rain he hears the tinkling of bells and his heart melts.
There is a change of fortune, the days go by the Emperor returns;
When he arrives at the place (where she died) nerveless and irresolute, he cannot go on;
On the slopes of Ma-wei there are but stretches of mud,
He cannot see the jade face in the empty place of death.
The Emperor and his ministers regard each other and their clothes are wet (with tears).
Eastwards towards the gates of the capital their horses bear them as they will,
Once home they find the ponds and gardens all as before;
By the T’ai-i Lake the hibiscus are open and by the Wei-yang Palace the willows are in bud,
The hibiscus flowers are like her face, the willow buds like her eyebrows.
When he is faced by such beauty he cannot refrain from tears.
The spring wind sways the blossom of peach and plum
The autumn rain brings down the leaves from the Wu-t'ung tree,
In the southern enclosure of the western palace the autumn colours the grass,
The fallen leaves cover the terraces with red but no one sweeps them away.
The actors of the "pear garden" have aged
The eunuchs of the "pepper room" have lost their charm,
At night in the hall the flitting fireflies remind him of his sorrow
The wick of his single lamp is burnt to the rind,
Still sleep does not come;
Throughout the long night he hears drums and bells mark the slowly passing hours
Gradually the Milky Way yields to the dawn,
The mandarin duck and drake tiles glitter coldly in the hoar frost,
The Emperor is cold beneath the kingfisher quilt
For who is there to share it with him?
Slowly, sadly, a year rolls by since dead and living were parted
Her ghost does not come back to haunt his dreams.
In Ling ch'iung there is a famous Taoist priest, in the Record Office,
Who is able by earnest concentration to summon the in-habitants of the ghostly world.
As the Emperor rolls from side to side distracted by his thoughts
They cause the priest to concentrate his powers in search;
He mounts up into space and rides the ether, rushing with speed of lightning
Up to heaven and down to earth searching on every hand,
Above he exhausts the blue heavens, below he exhausts the yellow springs
But in neither of these vast areas can he find her.
Suddenly he hears that on the sea there is a fairy island mountain.
This mountain floats in space amidst the void
Towards dwellings hung with tinkling bells;
Five-coloured clouds envelop it
Amidst it all the children of the immortal world move gracefully to and fro;
Among the others there dwells T'ai-chên
By her snowy skin and her flower-like face he has a feeling that it must be she.
To the west of the gold palace is a courtyard
He knocks at the jade gate and asks Hsiao-yü to let Shuang-ch'êng know.
Hearing of a messenger that has arrived from the Emperor
The nine embroidered bed-curtains are pulled aside and the sleeping ghost starts up.
Grasping her clothes she pushes aside the pillow and rises in a flutter
Pearl-studded blinds and silver screens are drawn to one side
Her cloud-like hair is disarranged as she comes straight from her slumbers,
Her flowing head-dress is not straight as she comes down the hall
The wind blows the fairy sleeves hither and thither as she comes
As if once more she danced to the tunes of the Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Jacket.
Her jadelike face is drawn and sad 
Her tears drop on the balcony,
A spray of pear blossom is drenched as with spring rain
Yet her passions are controlled though the tears stand in her eyes as she thanks the Emperor's messenger
Since their separation from each other both appearance and voice have grown indistinct.
In the Chao-yang Hall his love and benevolence will never reach her again
In fairyland days and months are long.
Turning her head she can gaze down at the world of men
But she cannot see Chang-an because of the mists and dust;
All she can do is to bring old toys, tokens of their great love,
The gold and enamel box and hairpin, these she sends to him
From the pin she reserves a piece, of the box she retains the lid.
She breaks the yellow gold of the pin, she divides the box
To signify her heart is as true as the gold and enamel pin
Whether it is in this world or the next they meet again.
When the messenger is about to go
She emphasizes her messages
Among them recalling a pledge which they two alone know
How on the seventh day of the seventh month
When at midnight they were alone in the Ch’ang-shêng Palace they whispered these words:
"We swear that in the sky we will be like one-winged birds (that must fly together)
And on earth like trees with interlocked branches."
Both heaven and earth must pass away in due course
But this wrong shall stretch out for ever without an end.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
THE Chinese Emperor, obsessed by beauty longed for one who might subvert the kingdom
In the Imperial palace he sought for many years but could not find her.
The Yang family had a daughter scarcely grown up
Brought up in the depths of the women's apartments,  Unknown to anyone outside
Heaven had endowed her with graces that she herself could not disdain.
One day she is chosen to stand by the Emperor's side,
At the turn of her eyes, at the flash of her smile a hundred compliments are born;
Who of the powdered and pencilled favourites of the six palaces can compete with such beauty?
At the Imperial behest in the cool springtime she washes in the Hua-ch'ing pool;
Smooth and warm the fountain water washes her alabaster skin
The attendant maid supports languid loveliness
From this time the new arrival enjoys Imperial favour
Her cloud front coiffure, her painted face Her hair ornaments, which swing as she walks
She spends the warm spring night within the hibiscus bed curtains;
Ah! How far oo fleeting was that spring night and how early the rising of the sun,
From this time onwards the Emperor gives no early audience.
She receives his favours and she waits on him at his feasts without break
She is always chosen for the spring excursion; chosen for the nightly carouse.
In the palace there are three thousand beauties,
But the favour that should have been extended to three thousand Is concentrated on the person of one.
In her "Golden Home" she beauties herself to attend him in the evening
The feasts of the jade tower ended She turns to him delirious with love.
Brothers and sisters, all are raised to noble rank;
Alas! for the ill-omened glories of the house in which she was born;
From this time onwards a parent's wish 
was not for the birth of sons, but of daughters.
The palace of Li towers into the azure sky
Fairy music is wafted on the breeze and is heard all round
Languid chanting and slow dancing linger to the sound of guitar and flute,
All day long the Emperor gazes upon her with never satiated eyes.
From Yü-yang comes the roll of drums that makes the earth tremble.
Fear scatters the song of the"Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Jacket." 
From the nine-towered gate towers smoke and dust rise
A thousand chariots, ten thousand horsemen go to the south-west,
Swaggering plumes go onwards, then halt.
From the gates of the capital they have gone a day's journey to the west
The six armies will go no further, there is no help for it
To appease them the moth-like eyebrows must die before their horses,
Flower-like jewellery is thrown to the ground and no one picks it up
Kingfisher feather work, golden birds and hairpins of jade lie there unclaimed,
The Emperor buries his face and cannot save her,
He looks back on the place where her blood and his tears flowed together.
The yellow dust is blown far and wide and the wind blows bleak and cold
From "Cloudy Pass" the road turns and winds up to the Sword Shelf.
Few walk beneath the shadow of Omei Shan,
The gleam of their banners is darkened; the sun is dimmed.
Oh! Jade-like are the streams of Szechwan, green are its hills!
The monarch morning and evening is overcome by his feelings
Gazing on the moon from his temporary palace its beauty hurts him
In the evening rain he hears the tinkling of bells and his heart melts.
There is a change of fortune, the days go by the Emperor returns;
When he arrives at the place (where she died) nerveless and irresolute, he cannot go on;
On the slopes of Ma-wei there are but stretches of mud,
He cannot see the jade face in the empty place of death.
The Emperor and his ministers regard each other and their clothes are wet (with tears).
Eastwards towards the gates of the capital their horses bear them as they will,
Once home they find the ponds and gardens all as before;
By the T’ai-i Lake the hibiscus are open and by the Wei-yang Palace the willows are in bud,
The hibiscus flowers are like her face, the willow buds like her eyebrows.
When he is faced by such beauty he cannot refrain from tears.
The spring wind sways the blossom of peach and plum
The autumn rain brings down the leaves from the Wu-t'ung tree,
In the southern enclosure of the western palace the autumn colours the grass,
The fallen leaves cover the terraces with red but no one sweeps them away.
The actors of the "pear garden" have aged
The eunuchs of the "pepper room" have lost their charm,
At night in the hall the flitting fireflies remind him of his sorrow
The wick of his single lamp is burnt to the rind, Still sleep does not come;
Throughout the long night he hears drums and bells mark the slowly passing hours
Gradually the Milky Way yields to the dawn,
The mandarin duck and drake tiles glitter coldly in the hoar frost,
The Emperor is cold beneath the kingfisher quilt For who is there to share it with him?
Slowly, sadly, a year rolls by since dead and living were parted
Her ghost does not come back to haunt his dreams.
In Ling ch'iung there is a famous Taoist priest, in the Record Office,
Who is able by earnest concentration to summon the in-habitants of the ghostly world.
As the Emperor rolls from side to side distracted by his thoughts
They cause the priest to concentrate his powers in search;
He mounts up into space and rides the ether, rushing with speed of lightning
Up to heaven and down to earth searching on every hand,
Above he exhausts the blue heavens, below he exhausts the yellow springs
But in neither of these vast areas can he find her.
Suddenly he hears that on the sea there is a fairy island mountain.
This mountain floats in space amidst the void
Towards dwellings hung with tinkling bells; Five-coloured clouds envelop it
Amidst it all the children of the immortal world move gracefully to and fro;
Among the others there dwells T'ai-chên
By her snowy skin and her flower-like face he has a feeling that it must be she.
To the west of the gold palace is a courtyard
He knocks at the jade gate and asks Hsiao-yü to let Shuang-ch'êng know.
Hearing of a messenger that has arrived from the Emperor
The nine embroidered bed-curtains are pulled aside and the sleeping ghost starts up.
Grasping her clothes she pushes aside the pillow and rises in a flutter
Pearl-studded blinds and silver screens are drawn to one side
Her cloud-like hair is disarranged as she comes straight from her slumbers,
Her flowing head-dress is not straight as she comes down the hall
The wind blows the fairy sleeves hither and thither as she comes
As if once more she danced to the tunes of the Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Jacket.
Her jadelike face is drawn and sad Her tears drop on the balcony,
A spray of pear blossom is drenched as with spring rain
Yet her passions are controlled though the tears stand in her eyes as she thanks the Emperor's messenger
Since their separation from each other both appearance and voice have grown indistinct.
In the Chao-yang Hall his love and benevolence will never reach her again
In fairyland days and months are long.
Turning her head she can gaze down at the world of men
But she cannot see Chang-an because of the mists and dust;
All she can do is to bring old toys, tokens of their great love,
The gold and enamel box and hairpin, these she sends to him
From the pin she reserves a piece, of the box she retains the lid.
She breaks the yellow gold of the pin, she divides the box
To signify her heart is as true as the gold and enamel pin
Whether it is in this world or the next they meet again.
When the messenger is about to go She emphasizes her messages
Among them recalling a pledge which they two alone know
How on the seventh day of the seventh month When at midnight they were alone in the Ch’ang-shêng Palace
they whispered these words:
"We swear that in the sky we will be like one-winged birds (that must fly together)
And on earth like trees with interlocked branches."
Both heaven and earth must pass away in due course
But this wrong shall stretch out for ever without an end.
<End Formatted Translation>