Written for Scholar Wei
Du Fu
赠卫八处士

人生不相见
动如参与商
今夕复何夕
共此灯烛光
少壮能几时
鬓发各已苍
访旧半为鬼
惊呼热中肠
焉知二十载
重上君子堂
昔别君未婚
儿女忽成行
怡然敬父执
问我来何方
问答乃未已
驱儿罗酒浆
夜雨翦春韭
新炊间黄粱
主称会面难
一举累十觞
十觞亦不醉
感子故意长
明日隔山岳
世事两茫茫 zèng wèi bā chǔ shì

rén shēng bù xiāng jiàn
dòng rú shēn yǔ shāng
jīn xī fù hé xī
gòng cǐ dēng zhú guāng
shào zhuàng néng jǐ shí
bìn fà gè yǐ cāng
fǎng jiù bàn wéi guǐ
jīng hū rè zhōng cháng
yān zhī èr shí zǎi
chóng shàng jūn zǐ táng
xī bié jūn wèi hūn
ér nǚ hū chéng háng
yí rán jìng fù zhí
wèn wǒ lái hé fāng
wèn dá nǎi wèi yǐ
qū ér luó jiǔ jiāng
yè yǔ jiǎn chūn jiǔ
xīn chuī jiān huáng liáng
zhǔ chēng huì miàn nán
yī jǔ lěi shí shāng
shí shāng yì bú zuì
gǎn zǐ gù yì cháng
míng rì gé shān yuè
shì shì liǎng máng máng Life not mutual see
Act like Shen and Shang
Today evening again which evening
Share this candle light
Young and vigorous able how long
Temple hair each already grey
Enquire old partly be ghosts
Exclaim excited in intestines
Didn't know twenty years
Again at your hall
Past part you not married
Boys girls suddenly form a line
Happy and contented respect father friend
Ask I come what direction
Question answer be not finish
Boys girls spread out alcohol
Night rain cut spring chives
New cooked rice mix golden millet
Host say meet hard
One cup repeat ten cups
Ten cups also not drunk
Feel your friendship long
Tomorrow separate mountain mountain
Human affairs two boundless and indistinct We've lived our lives and have not seen each other,
We've been just like the stars of Shen and Shang.
Oh what an evening is this evening now,
Together in the light of this one lamp?
Young and vigorous for so short a time,
Already now we both have greying temples.
We ask of old friends, half of them now dead,
Your exclamation stirs up my own heart.
We did not know it would be twenty years,
Before we met again inside your hall.
When we parted then, you were unmarried,
Suddenly boys and girls come in a row.
Happy and content, they respect their father's friend,
Asking me from which direction I come.
And even before the question has been answered,
The boys and girls have gone to fetch the wine.
In the rainy night, they cut spring chives,
And mix the fresh cooked rice with golden millet.
My host says it's been hard for us to meet,
One draught's repeated, now becomes ten cups.
After ten cups, still I am not drunk,
It's your lasting friendship which is moving.
Tomorrow we'll be sundered by the hills,
Just two in a boundless world of human affairs.