「新丰折臂翁－戒边功也」白居易

新丰老翁八十八，头鬓眉须皆似雪。玄孙扶向店前行，

左臂凭肩右臂折。问翁臂折来几年，兼问致折何因缘。

翁云贯属新丰县，生逢圣代无征战。惯听梨园歌管声，

不识旗枪与弓箭。无何天宝大征兵，户有三丁点一丁。

点得驱将何处去，五月万里云南行。闻道云南有泸水，

椒花落时瘴烟起。大军徒涉水如汤，未过十人二三死。

村南村北哭声哀，儿别爷娘夫别妻。皆云前后征蛮者，

千万人行无一回。是时翁年二十四，兵部牒中有名字。

夜深不敢使人知，偷将大石捶折臂。张弓簸旗俱不堪，

从兹始免征云南。骨碎筋伤非不苦，且图拣退归乡土。

此臂折来六十年，一肢虽废一身全。至今风雨阴寒夜，

直到天明痛不眠。痛不眠，终不悔，且喜老身今独在。

不然当时泸水头，身死魂孤骨不收。应作云南望乡鬼，

万人冢上哭呦呦。老人言，君听取。

君不闻开元宰相宋开府，不赏边功防黩武。

又不闻天宝宰相杨国忠，欲求恩幸立边功。

边功未立生人怨，请问新丰折臂翁。

THE OLD MAN WITH THE BROKEN ARM 

(A Satire on Militarism) 

At Hsin-feng an old man — four-score and eight; 

The hair on his head and the hair of his eyebrows — white as the new snow. 

Leaning on the shoulders of his great-grandchildren, he walks in front of the Inn ; 

With his left arm he leans on their shoulders ; his right arm is broken. 

I asked the old man how many years had passed since he broke his arm ; 

I also asked the cause of the injury, how and why it happened? 

The old man said he was born and reared in the District of Hsin-feng; 

At the time of his birth — a wise reign ; no wars or discords. 

" Often I listened in the Pear-Tree Garden to the sound of flute and song; 

Naught I knew of banner and lance; nothing of arrow or bow. 

Then came the wars of T'ien-pao ^ and the great levy of men ; 

Of three men in each house, — one man was taken. 

And those to whom the lot fell, where were they taken to? 

Five months' journey, a thousand miles — away to Yün-nan. 

We heard it said that in Yün-nan there flows the Lu River; 

As the flowers fall from the pepper-trees, poisonous vapours rise. 

When the great army waded across, the water seethed like a cauldron ; 

When barely ten had entered the water, two or three were dead. 

To the north of my village, to the south of my village the sound of weeping and wailing, 

Children parting from fathers and mothers ; husbands parting from wives. 

Everyone says that in expeditions against the Min tribes 

Of a million men who are sent out, not one returns. 

I, that am old, was then twenty-four; 

My name and fore-name were written down in the rolls of the Board of War. 

In the depth of the night not daring to let any one know 

I secretly took a huge stone and dashed it against my arm. 

For drawing the bow and waving the banner now wholly unfit; 

I knew henceforward I should not be sent to fight in Yün-nan. 

Bones broken and sinews wounded could not fail to hurt ; 

I was ready enough to bear pain, if only I got back home. 

My arm — broken ever since; it was sixty years ago. 

^ A,D. 742-755. 

One limb, although destroyed, — whole body safe ! 

But even now on winter nights when the wind and rain blow 

From evening on till day's dawn I cannot sleep for pain. 

Not sleeping for pain 

Is a small thing to bear. 

Compared with the joy of being alive when all the rest are dead. 

For otherwise, years ago, at the ford of Lu River 

My body would have died and my soul hovered by the bones that no one gathered. 

A ghost, I'd have wandered in Yün-nan, always looking for home. 

Over the graves of ten thousand soldiers, mournfully hovering." 

So the old man spoke, 

And I bid you listen to his words 

Have you not heard 

That the Prime Minister of K'ai-Yüan,' Sung K'ai-fu, 

Did not reward frontier exploits, lest a spirit of aggression should prevail? 

And have you not heard 

That the Prime Minister of T'ien-Pao, Yang Kuo-chung* 

Desiring to win imperial favour, started a frontier war? 

But long before he could win the war, people had lost their temper; 

Ask the man with the broken arm in the village of Hsin-feng? 

* 7'3-742. 

* Cousin of the notorious mistress of Ming-huang, Yang Kuei-fei.