<Header>
<Author: 杜甫>
<Title: 古柏行>
<Format: 七言古詩>
<Year: 1940>
<BookName: Selection from the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty>
<Translator: Soame Jenyns>
<TranslatedTitle: The Old Cypress>
<BookPage: 30-32>
<UsedPage: 3>
<Feature: 1, 2, 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
孔明廟前有老柏，
柯如青銅根如石。
霜皮溜雨四十圍，
黛色參天二千尺。
君臣已與時際會，
樹木猶爲人愛惜。
雲來氣接巫峽長，
月出寒通雪山白。
憶昨路繞錦亭東，
先主武侯同閟宮。
崔嵬枝幹郊原古，
窈窕丹青戶牖空。
落落盤踞雖得地，
冥冥孤高多烈風。
扶持自是神明力，
正直原因造化功。
大廈如傾要梁棟，
萬牛回首丘山重。
不露文章世已驚，
未辭剪伐誰能送。
苦心豈免容螻蟻，
香葉終經宿鸞鳳。
志士幽人莫怨嗟，
古來材大難爲用。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
BEFORE the temple of Chu-ko Liang stands an old cypress.
Its stem is like green bronze and its roots like rocks;
Its bark scarred by frosts; $((its fronds))$ washed bright by the rains,
While its circumference is forty spans round;
Its dark leaves stretch up into the heavens for two thousand feet.
Here prince and minister of old would meet when occasion allowed,
And to-day this tree is still revered.
When clouds come its vapours blow to the chasms of far-off Wu; 
When the moon shines forth its (the tree’s) cold whiteness seems to reach to the snowy mountains.
I have in my mind yesterday’s road winding to the east of the pavilion of Chin Kiang
Where the Military Marquis and his former Emperor share a remote and secret shrine.
The towering tree from of old has stood upon the plain,
Doors and windows (of the shrine) open upon a striking landscape.
Deep, deep down spread (her roots),
She crouches low yet holds her ground.
Her branches high up above, so strong, have weathered many a fierce gale;
For her strength and stay are of another world.
$((And she stands))$ straight and true as when she sprouted, for she is the work of the gods.
When a great palace falls into decay, pillars and beams are needed.
Ten thousand oxen shaking their heads (are needed to drag) a very mountain in weight.
There is no need for $((great timber))$ to produce extravagant memorials, its value should be too well known.
It is easy to cut down, but who can convey it $((to the place where it can be used))$?
Sometimes unavoidably its bitter heart is eaten away by ants,
Yet those fragrant leaves to the end of their days could have sheltered the luan and the phœnix.
Let the ambitious and retiring alike withhold their sighs.
Of old it was found difficult to use great material.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
BEFORE the temple of Chu-ko Liang stands an old cypress.
Its stem is like green bronze and its roots like rocks;
Its bark scarred by frosts; $((its fronds))$ washed bright by the rains, 
While its circumference is forty spans round;
Its dark leaves stretch up into the heavens for two thousand feet.
Here prince and minister of old would meet when occasion allowed,
And to-day this tree is still revered.
When clouds come its vapours blow to the chasms of far-off Wu; 
When the moon shines forth its (the tree’s) cold whiteness seems to reach to the snowy mountains.
I have in my mind yesterday’s road winding to the east of the pavilion of Chin Kiang
Where the Military Marquis and his former Emperor share a remote and secret shrine.
The towering tree from of old has stood upon the plain,
Doors and windows (of the shrine) open upon a striking landscape.
Deep, deep down spread (her roots), 
She crouches low yet holds her ground.
Her branches high up above, so strong, have weathered many a fierce gale;
For her strength and stay are of another world.
$((And she stands))$ straight and true as when she sprouted, for she is the work of the gods.
When a great palace falls into decay, pillars and beams are needed.
Ten thousand oxen shaking their heads (are needed to drag) a very mountain in weight.
There is no need for $((great timber))$ to produce extravagant memorials, its value should be too well known.
It is easy to cut down, but who can convey it $((to the place where it can be used))$?
Sometimes unavoidably its bitter heart is eaten away by ants,
Yet those fragrant leaves to the end of their days could have sheltered the luan and the phœnix.
Let the ambitious and retiring alike withhold their sighs.
Of old it was found difficult to use great material.
<End Formatted Translation>