鱼玄机·《和新及第悼亡诗二首·其一》英译

仙籍人间不久留，片时已过十经秋。

鸳鸯帐下香犹暖，鹦鹉笼中语未休。

朝露缀花如脸恨，晚风敧柳似眉愁。

彩云一去无消息，潘岳多情欲白头。

Replying to a Poem by a New Graduate Lamenting the Loss of His Wife

Yü Hsüan-chi

Immortals don’t stay long in the world of men;

You’ve passed another fall, already ten.

Pairs of ducks on a curtain, beneath, her fragrance lingers;

In the parrot’s cage her words are not yet stilled.

Morning dew pastes the flowers in a sad face;

Evening wind bends the willows like dropping eyebrows.

Colored clouds come once, then go away;

P’an Yüeh, wistful, is going gray.

（Geoffrey R. Waters 译）

Following the Rhymes of a New Graduate’s Poem Mourning the Death of His Wife (Two Poems) 

Yu Xuanji

I     

Those enrolled among the immortals don’t linger in the human world,

For them, a moment goes by, while we have passed a million autumns.

Beneath mandarin-duck curtains, fragrance is still warm,

And the parrot’s words have not yet ceased in its cage.

Morning dew beads the flowers the sorrow on her cheeks;

Evening wind bends the willows the melancholy of her eyebrows.

Once the many-hued cloud has gone, there comes no word,

Pan Yue is so filled with grief that his hair is turning white.¹

1. On Pan Yue and his elegy for his dead wife. Pan’s hair was said to have turned gray overnight with grief. 

（Jennifer Carpenter 译）

Two Verses, On Winning a Degree on Mourning

Yu Xuanji

1

Our destiny in the human world

is not for a lengthy stay;

in but a moment, ten autumns

have already passed away.

Below the scroll of mandarin ducks,

the censor is still warm;

while in the parrot cage

chatter still goes on.

Morning dewdrops dot the flowers

like tears on a mournful face;

willow sway in the evening breeze

like brows of sorrowful eyes.

No more news is ever heard

once someone’s passed away;

even successful, passionate ones

all are turning grey.

Don’t be loathe to visit me

in my humble apartment;

every spring there’s plenty to do

at the scenic gardens.

（Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary 译）