I hear a woman weep

我聽見女子的泣訴

like wind thinning leaves in a bamboo grove,

像風吹進竹林削薄竹葉

a sound to be remembered

四處尋找發燙的耳朵

Tears may freeze in winter

眼淚結冰的冬天

when she cries for war’s despair,

她哭戰爭的絕望

or in spring, as black-naped orioles

黃鶯啼鳴的原野

sing golden on the plains

她哭春天的迷惘

and she laments lost seasons

日照下那女子

That woman in sunshine

像河邊的蘆葦林中的葛藤

like kudzu along a riverbank

與季節一同呼吸

breathes with the light

翻過山岡

On the mountain, care’s green vine

牽掛是懸崖上的一條葛藤

descends from a cliff edge

跨越棧橋

By the jetty

悲傷是溪流中的一根蘆葦

sorrow bends like a reed in the river

一日不見，如三月兮

A day without seeing you is three months

一日不見，如三秋兮

A day three autumns

一日不見，如三歲兮

A day three years

你問我往哪裡去

You ask where I’m going

風在城門樓上來來回回

as wind flows this way or that

有人採荇有人採薇

through the gates of the city

在愛與被愛的地方

Someone gathers yellow waterlilies, fern-shoots

小草撫觸肌膚般的土壤

in places to love and be loved

我的情人與我相會

Short grasses stroke the soil’s soft skin

又與我相別

I meet my lover

then we part

你問我何時歸來

兵士不再群聚干戈

You ask when I may return

絲綢不再片片撕裂

When troops no longer take weapons

有人蠶桑有人浣衣

and silk’s not torn to threads

星光交擊晨光的音符

Some plant mulberry, raise silkworms

我的情人啊天黑與我共眠

Some wash clothes

天亮為我相思

Starlight ebbs at dawn’s music

Lover, lie with me at dusk

and for me yearn at daybreak