李白·《子夜吴歌（其四）》英译

明朝驿使发， 一夜絮征袍。 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

素手抽针冷， 那堪把剪刀。

裁缝寄远道， 几日到临洮？

Evening Song (IV)

Li Bai

Tomorrow a courier will gallop swiftly west, and will take from her a gift;

so preparing it she sits through the night—a soldier’s padded coat—and into its stitching she puts her heart.

Fingers freeze so that movement becomes difficult; to grasp the ice-cold scissors painful;

Yet before dawn sewing is finished and hopefully she hands it to relay riders to carry all the long way to Lintao;

wondering anxiously how many days it will be before he wears her handiwork.