<Header>
<Author: 杜甫>
<Title: 新安吏>
<Format: 格式不明>
<Year: 1985>
<BookName: SELECTED POEMS OF DU FU>
<Translator: Li Weijian>
<TranslatedTitle: The Officer at Xin’an  >
<BookPage: 102-107>
<UsedPage: 6>
<Feature: 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
客行新安道，
喧呼聞點兵。
借問新安吏，
縣小更無丁。
府帖昨夜下，
次選中男行。
中男絕短小，
何以守王城。
肥男有母送，
瘦男獨伶俜。
白水暮東流，
青山猶哭聲。
莫自使眼枯，
收汝淚縱橫。
眼枯即見骨，
天地終無情。
我軍取相州，
日夕望其平。
豈意賊難料，
歸軍星散營。
就糧近故壘，
練卒依舊京。
掘壕不到水，
牧馬役亦輕。
況乃王師順，
撫養甚分明。
送行勿泣血，
僕射如父兄。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
My way happening to take me through Xin'an,
I find the county-in a hubbub-mustering in, sure enqugh.
I ask the officer in charge,
"Why no grown-ups? Place too small, perhaps?"
"Commandant's orders came last night.
The draft age is lowered to eighteen.”
"But these boys are too small.
How can you expect them to hold the fort?"
There they are! 
Those who are brought by their mothers look better fed,
Those who come by themselves are thin and weak.
Night falls. Silent flows the river.
Yet the hills echo with the wails of the unfortunate.
"Stanch your tears. What though you weep
Till yours eyes go dry? Though your eyes go dry,
Heaven and earth will show no mercy,"
"Our armies were about to capture the enemy stronghold;
Victory was expected every day, every hour.
The rebels countered with a few cunning strokes,
And our armies retired, each to its. own base.
There's enough grain in these parts, old forts too;
And the training camps are near the ancient capital.
The trenches you dig will not reach groundwater.
As for tending horses, that's not heavy work.
You have the honour to serve in a righteous army;
All of you will be well taken care of,
There's no cause to weep so bitterly at parting,
For the Grand Marshal is like a father to his men.”
<End Translation>