李白·《与史郎中钦听黄鹤楼上吹笛》英译

一为迁客去长沙，西望长安不见家。

黄鹤楼中吹玉笛，江城五月落梅花。

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The Sound of a Flute Coming from Yellow Crane Tower

Li Pai

 

Since I am banished and

on my way to Changsha,

I stare towards Changan

vainly looking for my home,

I hear the sound of a flute

from the Yellow Crane Tower playing

the tune of Plum Blossom, it is

the fifth month and we are beside

the river.

 

（Rewi Alley 译）

 

On Hearing the Flute in Yellow Crane Tower

Li Bai

 

Since I was banished to the riverside town,

Looking westward, I’ve found no house I’d call my own.

Hearing in Yellow Crane Tower the flute’s sad tune,

I seem to see mume blossoms fall in the fifth moon¹.

 

1. The mume blossoms blow in winter or spring, not in summer (the fifth moon). Hearing the flute, the poet became so sad as to take summer for winter.

 

（许渊冲 译）

 

Listening to the Flute from the Yellow Crane Tower with an Official Named Shi

Li Bai

 

As I go to Changsha as demoted in officialdom,

Turning my head west I can not see my home.

A plaintive flute number is heard from the Yellow Crane Tower,

The River Town seems to bloom in May with the plum flower.

 

（刘军平 译）