苏轼·《吴中田妇叹》英译

今年粳稻熟苦迟，庶见霜风来几时。<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

霜风来时雨如泻，杷头出菌镰生衣。

眼枯泪尽雨不尽，忍见黄穗卧青泥！

茅苫一月陇上宿，天晴获稻随车归；

汗流肩赪载入市，价贱乞与如糠粃。

卖牛纳税拆屋炊，虑浅不及明年饥。

官今要钱不要米，西北万里招羌儿。

龚黄满朝人更苦，不如却作河伯妇！

Lament of a Peasant Woman

Su Shi

This year the rice harvest is late,

Soon blighting winds will blow;

But before the wind comes torrential rain,

The sickle is rusted, the rake thick with mold.

She weeps till her eyes are dry, still the rain pours down;

It hurts to see the yellow ears flat in the mud@

A whole month she stays in a straw hut by the fields;

Once it clears, she reaps the rice and carts it home;

Sweating, shoulders chafed red, she carries her grain to market—

All she gets is the price of chaff!

She sells her ox to pay the tax, pulls down her hut for fuel,

Too simple to worry about next year’s hunger;

Now the court demands money instead of rice,

To buy over the northwest tribesmen ten thousand li off.

The more wise men at court, the harder the people’s lot—

Harder than being bride to the River God.