陆游·《估客乐》英译

长江浩浩蛟龙渊，浪花正白蹴半天。

轲峨大艑望如豆，骇视未定已至前。

帆席云垂大堤外，缆索雷响高城边。

牛车辚辚载宝货，磊落照市人争传。

倡楼呼卢掷百万，旗亭买酒价十千。

公卿姓氏不曾问，安知孰秉中书权。

儒生辛苦望一饱，趑趄光范祈哀怜；

齿摇发脱竟莫顾，诗书满腹身萧然。

自看赋命如纸薄，始知估客人间乐。

The Merchant’s Joy

Lu Yu

The wide wide Yangtze, dragons in deep pools;

wave blossoms, purest white, leap to the sky.

The great ship, tall-towered, far off no bigger than a bean;

my wondering eyes have not come to rest when it’s here before me.

Matted sails: clouds that hang beyond the embankment;

lines and hawsers: their thunder echoes from high town walls.

Rumble rumble of oxcarts to haul the priceless cargo;

heaps, hordes to dazzle the market—men race with the news.

In singing-girl towers to play at dice, a million on one throw;

by flag-flown pavilions calling for wine, ten thousand a cask;

the Mayor? the Governor? we don’t even know their names;

what’s it to us who wields power in the palace?

Confucian scholar, hard up, dreaming of one square meal;

a limp, a stumble, prayers for pity at His Excellency’s gate;

teeth rot, hair falls out—no one looks your way;

belly crammed with classical texts, body lean with care—

See what Heaven gives me—luck thin as paper!

Now I know that merchants are the happiest of men.

（Burton Watson 译）