文／唐．杜甫（712～770）

人生不相見，動若參與商；

今夕復何夕？共此燈燭光。

少壯能幾時？鬢髮各已蒼；

訪舊半為鬼，驚呼熱中腸。

焉知二十載，重上君子堂；

昔別君未婚，兒女忽成行。

怡然敬父執，問我來何方？

問答未及已，驅兒羅酒漿。

夜雨剪春韭，新炊間黃粱；

主稱會面難，一舉累十觴。

十觴亦不醉，感子故意長；

明日隔山岳，世事兩茫茫。

──選自《全唐詩》

For Mister Wei, A Retired Scholar

Du Fu (712 - 770, Tang Dynasty)

English translation: Ven. Zhi Yue

Life without meeting each other,

is like constellations moving apart;

What evening, then, is this,

where we can share the same candle light?

How long will youth last,

as both our hairs are all gray now?

Discovering half our friends are ghosts,

we cry out in a shock of disbelief;

How could we have known it’d be twenty years

before I would once again enter your home.

Before we parted, you were still unmarried;

look now at your row of boys and girls,

Happily greeting their father’s friend,

asking me where I come from?

Before I finish answering,

the children have prepared a feast and wine:

Spring scallions cut in the evening rain,

freshly steamed rice with yellow millet.

“Meeting again may be difficult ,” you say,

pouring ten glasses of wine in one go.

The ten goblets of wine do not make me drunk,

it was feeling moved by your old sentiments.

Tomorrow, a lofty mountain will separate us,

as we return to the world’s affairs again.

── from Quan Tang Shi

(Complete Collection of Tang Poems)