<Header>
<Author: 李頎>
<Title: 聽董大彈胡笳聲兼寄語弄房給事>
<Format: 七言古詩>
<Year: 1940>
<BookName: Selection from the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty>
<Translator: Soame Jenyns>
<TranslatedTitle: Listening to Mr. Tung Tai playing on his psaltery the Tartar Pipe and sending word to Mr. Fang, the Supervising Censor>
<BookPage: 62-63>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 1, 2, 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
蔡女昔造胡笳聲，
一彈一十有八拍。
胡人落淚沾邊草，
漢使斷腸對歸客。
古戍蒼蒼烽火寒，
大荒沈沈飛雪白。
先拂商弦後角羽，
四郊秋葉驚摵摵。
董夫子，
通神明，
深山竊聽來妖精。
言遲更速皆應手，
將往復旋如有情。
空山百鳥散還合，
萬里浮雲陰且晴。
嘶酸雛鴈失羣夜，
斷絕胡兒戀母聲。
川爲淨其波，
鳥亦罷其鳴。
烏孫部落家鄉遠，
邏娑沙塵哀怨生。
幽音變調忽飄灑，
長風吹林雨墮瓦。
迸泉颯颯飛木末，
野鹿呦呦走堂下。
長安城連東掖垣，
鳳凰池對青瑣門。
高才脫略名與利，
日夕望君抱琴至。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
OF ancient times the Lady Ts‘ai composed an air about the Tartar pipe.
It was a melody in eighteen bars.
The Tartars wept so that their tears moistened the wayside grasses;
The Chinese envoy groaned as he turned towards his parting guests,
$((For the music spoke))$ of ancient battlefields now green
And of beacon fires long cold of the Ta Huang steppes dreary with driven snows.
Now $((Mr. Tung))$ touches the shang string, afterwards the chüeh and the yü,
$((And his audience))$ is startled on all sides 
By the whisper of autumn leaves. 
Ah! Mister Tung, you are inspired.
Under the dark shade of the firs the supernatural world steals to listen.
The notes first slow, then fast respond to your touch;
They come and go instinct with passion,
As when o'er the empty hills the birds scatter to return in flocks,
Or as when o'er ten thousand li the clouds float now dark, now light,
(You reproduce in turn) the notes of the fledgeling wild goose that has lost its flock in the night
(Or the cry) of the starved Tartar child yearning for his mother's breasts.
(At your touch) the river stills her waves
While the birds cease their cries
And the Wu-chu tribes think of their distant homeland
As a wail of sorrow rises from the sands and dust of Tibet.
Then the sad air changes suddenly to gust and storm,
As when wind blows through the trees or rain dashes down on the tiles,
Or the springs shoot forth in spray above the heads of the trees,
Or the wild deer bellow as they run below the lodge.
At Ch‘ang-an next to the east wall near the palace
Where the phœnix lake faces the gate of azure gems
Lives a scholar who despises fame and riches.
In the evening he longs to see you $((Mr. Tung Ta))$ visit him
Carrying your psaltery.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
OF ancient times the Lady Ts‘ai composed an air about the Tartar pipe.
It was a melody in eighteen bars.
The Tartars wept so that their tears moistened the wayside grasses;
The Chinese envoy groaned as he turned towards his parting guests,
$((For the music spoke))$ of ancient battlefields now green And of beacon fires long cold
of the Ta Huang steppes dreary with driven snows.
Now $((Mr. Tung))$ touches the shang string, afterwards the chüeh and the yü,
$((And his audience))$ is startled on all sides 
By the whisper of autumn leaves. 
Ah! Mister Tung,
you are inspired.
Under the dark shade of the firs the supernatural world steals to listen.
The notes first slow, then fast respond to your touch;
They come and go instinct with passion,
As when o'er the empty hills the birds scatter to return in flocks,
Or as when o'er ten thousand li the clouds float now dark, now light,
(You reproduce in turn) the notes of the fledgeling wild goose that has lost its flock in the night
(Or the cry) of the starved Tartar child yearning for his mother's breasts.
(At your touch) the river stills her waves
While the birds cease their cries
And the Wu-chu tribes think of their distant homeland
As a wail of sorrow rises from the sands and dust of Tibet.
Then the sad air changes suddenly to gust and storm,
As when wind blows through the trees or rain dashes down on the tiles,
Or the springs shoot forth in spray above the heads of the trees,
Or the wild deer bellow as they run below the lodge.
At Ch‘ang-an next to the east wall near the palace
Where the phœnix lake faces the gate of azure gems
Lives a scholar who despises fame and riches.
In the evening he longs to see you $((Mr. Tung Ta))$ visit him Carrying your psaltery.
<End Formatted Translation>