某初至乡闾，言寻旧友，耆年者化为异物，少壮者咸为老翁；山川不改旧时，丘陇多为陈迹。感今怀古，抚存悼亡，不觉涕之无从也！ 询问子侄，彼亦凋零，永言伤情，增以悲恸。虽生死之分，同尽此途，而存亡之情，岂能无恨！
终期展接，以申阔怀。取此月二十日栖桐成礼，事过之后，始可得行。祁叙尚赊，情系何及！各愿珍勖，远无所铨。
《骆临海集》
Again
to My Relatives Luo
Binwang1
I can still
remember vividly what happened when I returned to my native place last time. At
first I asked about my old friends I wanted to meet, but, alas, the elder ones
had already gone to the other world, and the younger ones had also become aged.
The hills and streams were the same as they had ever been, but the tombs had
mostly become the only remains of the past. There I was, condoling the dead and
consoling the living while remembering the past and pondering over the present.
In such circumstances, how could I refrain from bursting into a flood or tears?
Then I asked
about my nephews. To my great surprise, many of them had also withered away. My
sorrow for the old was thus heightened by my lament for the young. Although
death is the destined end of life for everybody, who can help but be overcome
with grief for the dead?
Anyhow, I wish
to meet you again to talk over everything in my mind. But as my nephew Qitong
will be married on the 20th of this month, I can make the journey
only after that. So there will still be quite a few days before our meeting.
How I look forward to our reunion! Before that, let us both take better care of
ourselves, and I won’t go further into details.
1. Luo Binwang
was a poet and official during the early Tang Dynasty.
A
Collection of Luo Binwang’s Works
（谢百魁、陈启达
译） |
/1 
