Listen to this article兵车行
车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰。
耶娘妻子[1]走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。
牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干[2]云霄。
道傍过者问行人，行人但云点行频[3]。
或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田[4]。
去时里正[5]与裹头[6]，归来头白还戍边。
边庭流血成海水，武皇[7]开边意未已。
君不闻汉家山东二百州[8]，千村万落生荆杞。
纵有健妇把锄犁，禾生陇亩无东西。
况复秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬与鸡。
长者虽有问，役夫敢申恨。
且如今年冬，未休关西卒[9]。
县官[10]急索租，租税从何出。
信知生男恶，反是生女好。
生女犹是嫁比邻[11]，生男埋没随百草。
君不见青海头，古来白骨无人收。
新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾。
注释：
[1] 妻子：妻和子女。
[2] 干：犯；冲。
[3] 点行频：多次点兵出征。
[4] 营田：戍边的士卒，兼从事垦荒工作。
[5] 里正：里长。唐制：百户为一里，里有里正，管户口、赋役等事。
[6] 与裹头：古以皂罗三尺裹头作头巾。因应征者年龄还小，故由里正替他裹头。
[7] 武皇：汉武帝，他在历史上以开疆拓土著称。这里暗喻唐玄宗。
[8] 山东二百州：指华山以东的广大土地。
[9] 关西卒：指此次应征出发的秦地士卒。
[10] 县官：指官府。
[11] 比邻：近邻。
Song of the Conscripts
Du Fu
The conscripts march with bow and arrows at the waist.
Their fathers, mothers, wives and children come in haste
To see them off; the bridge is shrouded in dust they’ve raised.
They clutch at their coats, stamp the feet and bar the way;
Their grief cries loud and strikes the cloud straight, straight away.
An onlooker by roadside asks an enrollee.
“The conscription is frequent,” only answers he.
Some went north at fifteen to guard the river shore,
And were sent west to till the land at forty.
The elder bound their young heads when they went away;
Just home, they’re sent to the frontier though their hair’s gray.
The field on borderland becomes a sea of blood;
The emperor’s greed for land is still at high flood.
Have you not heard
Two hundred districts east of the Hua Mountains lie,
Where briers and brambles grow in villages far and nigh?
Although stout women can wield the plough and the hoe,
Thorns and weeds in the east as in the west o’ergrow.
The enemy are used to hard and stubborn fight;
Our men are driven just like dogs or fowls in flight.
You are kind to ask me
To complain I’m not free.
In winter of this year
Conscription goes on here.
The magistrates for taxes press.
How can we pay them in distress?
If we had known sons bring no joy,
We would have preferred girl to boy.
A daughter can be wed to a neighbor, alas!
A son can only be buried under the grass?
Have you not seen on borders green
Bleached bones since olden days unburied on the plain?
The old ghosts weep and cry, while the new ghosts complain;
The air is loud with screech and scream in gloomy rain.
The poet criticizes the Bright Emperor of the Tang Dynasty for his conscription of soldiers in war.
《兵车行》是唐代大诗人杜甫创作的叙事诗。全诗以“道旁过者问行人”为界分为两段：首段摹写送别的惨状，是纪事；次段传达征夫的诉苦，是纪言。此诗具有深刻的思想内容，借征夫对老人的答话，倾诉了人民对战争的痛恨，揭露了唐玄宗长期以来的穷兵黩武，连年征战，给人民造成了巨大的灾难。全诗寓情于叙事之中，在叙述次序上参差错落前后呼应，变化开阖井然有序，并巧妙运用过渡句和习用词语，造成了回肠荡气的艺术效果。诗人自创乐府新题写时事，为中唐时期兴起的新乐府运动作出了开创性的贡献。
The poem is divided into two stanzas: the first stanza describes the tragic farewell and the second stanza conveys the plight of the conscripts. The poem is divided into two stanzas: the first stanza is a chronicle of the tragic farewell; the second stanza is a chronicle of the conscripts’ complaints. The poem has a profound ideological content. Through the words of the conqueror to the old man, the poem tells the people’s hatred of war and exposes the long-standing militarism of Emperor Tang Xuanzong, who has caused great disasters to the people through years of warfare. The entire poem is a narrative of emotions, with the narrative sequence echoing back and forth, and the changes in order, and the clever use of transitional lines and idiomatic words, resulting in an evocative artistic effect. The poet created a new theme of music to write about current events, making a pioneering contribution to the new music movement that emerged in the Middle Tang Dynasty.
