<Header>
<Author: 李白>
<Title: 長干行二首 一>
<Format: 樂府詩>
<Year: 1940>
<BookName: Selection from the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty>
<Translator: Soame Jenyns>
<TranslatedTitle: A Ballad of Ch‘ang Kan Part I>
<BookPage: 47-48>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
妾髮初覆額，
折花門前劇。
郎騎竹馬來，
繞牀弄青梅。
同居長干里，
兩小無嫌猜。
十四爲君婦，
羞顏未嘗開。
低頭向暗壁，
千喚不一迴。
十五始展眉，
願同塵與灰。
常存抱柱信，
豈上望夫臺。
十六君遠行，
瞿塘灩澦堆。
五月不可觸，
猨聲天上哀。
門前遲行跡，
一一生綠苔。
苔深不能掃，
落葉秋風早。
八月胡蝶來，
雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心，
坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴，
預將書報家。
相迎不道遠，
直至長風沙。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
IN the days when my hair first fell over my forehead
And in play I plucked flowers before the door,
You came riding to me on a bamboo horse.
Throwing blue plums, we chased each other round the bed.
Together we lived in the hamlet of Ch‘ang Kan,
In those days we were both young and innocent.
At the age of fourteen I became your wife.
So bashful that I dared not look up,
I hung my head in the darkest corners.
A thousand times you called me, but I did not answer.
At the age of fifteen I began to come to my senses
And plighted my troth to you till we should be dust and ashes together.
We kept faith as he who clung to the post of old.
How should I dally on the tower seeking a husband’s return?
When I was sixteen you went on a far journey.
In the gorges of Ch‘u Tang foaming rapids defy the traveller.
In the fifth month they cannot be passed in (safety).
The monkeys lift their melancholy howls in the distant heights.
Before the door I gaze where your parting feet have trodden.
Little by little the green moss covers them,
Deep green moss that cannot be brushed away.
Already the leaves are falling in the autumn wind.
In the eighth month the yellow butterflies come;
They flutter in pairs over the flowers of the western garden.
These matters touch my heart with emotion
As I sit lonely while my bloom fades to age.
Sooner or later you must return down the Three Gorges.
Do not forget to send a letter informing me of your arrival,
Then I will meet you nor fear the distant road
Even to the Long Wind Beach.
<End Translation>