「放旅雁（元和十年冬作）」白居易 

九江十年冬大雪，江水生冰树枝折。

百鸟无食东西飞，中有旅雁声最饥。

雪中啄草冰上宿，翅冷腾空飞动迟。

江童持网捕将去，手携入市生卖之。

我本北人今谴谪，人鸟虽殊同是客。

见此客鸟伤客人，赎汝放汝飞入云。

雁雁汝飞向何处，第一莫飞西北去。

淮西有贼讨未平，百万甲兵久屯聚。

官军贼军相守老，食尽兵穷将及汝。

健儿饥饿射汝吃，拔汝翅翎为箭羽。

RELEASING A MIGRANT "YEN" (WILD GOOSE)  

At Nine Rivers, '  in the tenth year,* in winter, — heavy  snow ; 

The river-water covered with ice and the forests broken  with their load/ 

The birds of the air, hungry and cold, went flying east  and west; 

And with them flew a migrant "yen," loudly clamouring  for food. 

Among the snow it pecked for grass; and rested on the  surface of the ice : 

It tried with its wings to scale the sky ; but its tired flight  was slow. 

The boys of the river spread a net and caught the bird as  it flew ; 

They took it in their hands to the city-market and sold it  there alive. 

I that was once a man of the North am now an exile here : 

Bird and man, in their different kind, are each strangers in  the south. 

And because the sight of an exiled bird wounded an exile's  heart, 

I paid your ransom and set you free, and you flew away to  the clouds. 

Yen, Yen, flying to the clouds, tell me, whither shall you go? 

Of all things I bid you, do not fly to the land of the north-west 

In Huai-hsi there are rebel bands * that have not been subdued; 

And a thousand thousands armoured men have long been camped in war. 

The official army and the rebel army have grown old in their opposite trenches; 

The soldier's rations have grown so small, they'll be glad of even you. 

The brave boys, in their hungry plight, will shoot you and eat your flesh ; 

They will pluck from your body those long feathers and make them into arrow-wings! 

' Kiukiang, the poet's place of exile. 

' A.D. 815. His first winter at Kiukiang. 

* By the weight of snow. 

* The revolt of Wu Yüan-chi.