On the Second of the Tenth Month, Recalling My Old Roaming十月二日。憶舊遊。
去歲秋九月。南來寓吾邦。遶村皆禿嶺。帶縣唯淸江。朝遊林下寺。問道雪眉厖。暮還寄旅舍。擁葛對靑釭。淸坐愁不寐。風雪打紙窓。平明別姊氏。跨我鐵色駹。出門月未落。遠寺鍾初撞。崎嶇路高下。馬足蹶石矼。殷勤二三子。出餞皆舁缸。臨歧一揮手。淸淚落雙雙。曉行䕺薄中。畏虎橫短鏦。身穿岫齾齾。足亂溪淙淙。閒關到京洛。日月會龍□〔⿰犭⿱宀尨〕。兒女喜我至。問訊何悾悾。至今淸夜夢。萬里凌崆㟅。何時乘使車。四牡嚴麾幢。吏民改舊觀。畫鼓千指摐。此言亦戱耳。褊心良未降。功名如鼎重。萬夫力爭扛。吾儕已斂退。無復隨群哤。如收簸揚旆。髡然束空杠。拂衣便長往。願學峴山龐。
Last year, in the ninth month of autumn, I came south and lodged in my own district. All that ringed the village were balding ridges; all that girdled the county was the clear river alone. In the morning I roamed to the monastery below the woods and asked after the Way from a shaggy old monk with snow-white brows; at dusk I came back and put up at an inn, wrapped in hemp and facing a green lamp. Sitting clear-headed, too troubled to sleep, I heard wind and snow beating at the paper window. At first light I parted from my elder sister and mounted my iron-grey horse. I went out the gate while the moon had not yet set, and from a far monastery a bell first struck. The rough road rose and fell, and my horse's hoof stumbled on a stone bridge. How kind they were, those two or three men who came out to send me off, every one of them shouldering a wine jar. At the parting of the ways I waved my hand once, and clear tears fell in two streams. At dawn I went on through the thickets, and in fear of tigers held a short spear crosswise. My body pierced through jagged, saw-toothed peaks; my feet were lost in babbling streams. Passing the hard road I reached the capital, where sun and moon gather at the dragon's lair. My children and womenfolk were glad that I had come — how clumsily they asked after my health! Even now, in dreams on clear nights, I cross ten thousand li of towering sky. When shall I ride in an envoy's carriage, with four horses and the banners sternly raised, so that clerks and commons shall change the eyes they looked at me with, and a thousand fingers beat the painted drums? This talk too is only jesting; my narrow heart is truly unbowed. Merit and fame are heavy as a cauldron that ten thousand men strain and vie to lift. I have already drawn in and withdrawn, and follow the babble of the crowd no longer. When the winnowing is done and the banners are taken down, what is left is like a bare pole bound up with nothing on it. I would shake out my clothes and go far off at once, and learn from Pang Degong (龐德公) of Mount Xian (峴山).
Interlinear notes 2
自尙州來寓吾鄕。
He came from Sangju and lodged in his home district.
前年寓鄕邑。邑宰頗輕。故云。
The year before he had lodged in his home county, and the county magistrate rather slighted him, and so he said this.