UNE: SONG OF GOLDEN DREAM

Wang Yan

(Southern Song Dynasty)

The mountains darken, overshadowed by cloud;

The cold weather thick with rain is not loud.

Red petals fall from a few pretty weeping trees.

Grieve not for flowers blown off by the vernal breeze!

Plodding out in straw cloak from day to day,

Coming back by ditchside pathway,

The peasants lead the hardest life from spring to fall.

What they need after all

Is but a bumper year

So dear!

南柯子

[南宋]王炎

山冥云阴重,天

寒雨意浓。

数枝幽艳湿啼红。

莫为惜花惆怅,对东风。

蓑笠朝朝出,

沟塍处处通。

人间辛苦是三农。

要得一犁水足,望年丰。

About the poet 

Wang Yan was a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) poet and one of the most erudite literati of his time. 

About the translator 

Xu Yuanchong (1921-2021) was born in Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi Province. He was a professor of literary translation at Peking University.

About the book 

300 Song lyrics Translated by Xu Yuanchong Published by China