From: Xiaofu <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1993 18:50:05 CDT

The following CI was translated by Professor Xu Yuan Zhong.
Please don't archive.

      苏轼　　　　　永遇乐

彭城夜宿燕子楼，梦盼盼，因作此词。

明月如霜，好风如水，清景无限。
曲港跳鱼，圆荷泻露，寂寞无人见。
（糸＋沈去掉三点水）如三鼓，铿然一叶，黯黯梦云惊断。

夜茫茫，重寻无处，觉来小园行遍。
天涯倦客，山中归路，望断故园心眼。
燕子楼空，佳人何在？空锁楼中燕。
古今如梦，何曾梦觉？但有旧欢新怨。
异时对、黄楼夜景，为余浩叹。

Su Shi

Dream of the Fair at Pavilion of Swallows*
Tune: "Joy of Eternal Unio"

The bright moonlight is like frost white;
The breeze is cool like waves serence;
Far and wide extends the night scene.
In the haven fish leap
And dewdrops roll down lotus leaves
In solitude no man perceives.
Drums beat thrice in the night so deep,
E'en a leaf falls with sound so loud
That, gloomy, I awake from my dream of the Cloud.
Under the boundless pall of night,
No where again can she be found,
Al though I've searched o'er the garden's ground.

A tired wanderer far from home
Vainly through mountains and hills may roam;
His native land from views is blocked.
The Pavilion of Swallows is empty.
Where is the lady Pan-pan so fair?
In the pavilion only swallows' nest is locked.
Both the past and the present are like dreams
>From which we have ne'er been awake, it seems;
There's left but pleasure old or sorrow new.
Some future day will others come to view
The Yellow Tower's night scenery**;
Would they then sigh for me!

*The Pavilion of Swallows at Pencheng ( present-day Xuzhou) was
where
the fair
lady Pan-pan, famous singer and dancer of the Tang dynasty, lived
alone
for ten
years, refusing to remarry after the death of her beloved lord.
**The Yellow Tower was built by the poet after the Yellow River's
flood
was stemmed.