When he was a youth of fifteen or twenty,
He chased a wild horse, he caught him and rode him,
He shot the white-browed mountain tiger,
He defied the yellow-bristled Horseman of Ye.
Fighting single- handed for a thousand miles,
With his naked dagger he could hold a multitude.
...Granted that the troops of China were as swift as heaven's thunder
And that Tartar soldiers perished in pitfalls fanged with iron,
General Wei Qing's victory was only a thing of chance.
And General Li Guang's thwarted effort was his fate, not his fault.
Since this man's retirement he is looking old and worn:
Experience of the world has hastened his white hairs.
Though once his quick dart never missed the right eye of a bird,
Now knotted veins and tendons make his left arm like an osier.
He is sometimes at the road-side selling melons from his garden,
He is sometimes planting willows round his hermitage.
His lonely lane is shut away by a dense grove,
His vacant window looks upon the far cold mountains
But, if he prayed, the waters would come gushing for his men
And never would he wanton his cause away with wine.
...War-clouds are spreading, under the Helan Range;
Back and forth, day and night, go feathered messages;
In the three River Provinces, the governors call young men --
And five imperial edicts have summoned the old general.
So he dusts his iron coat and shines it like snow-
Waves his dagger from its jade hilt in a dance of starry steel.
He is ready with his strong northern bow to smite the Tartar chieftain --
That never a foreign war-dress may affront the Emperor.
...There once was an aged Prefect, forgotten and far away,
Who still could manage triumph with a single stroke.
Original Poem:
「老将行」
王维
少年十五二十时， 步行夺得胡马骑。
射杀山中白额虎， 肯数邺下黄须儿。
一身转战三千里， 一剑曾当百万师。
汉兵奋迅如霹雳， 虏骑崩腾畏蒺藜。
卫青不败由天幸， 李广无功缘数奇。
自从弃置便衰朽， 世事蹉跎成白首。
昔时飞箭无全目， 今日垂杨生左肘。
路旁时卖故侯瓜， 门前学种先生柳。
苍茫古木连穷巷， 寥落寒山对虚牖。
誓令疏勒出飞泉， 不似颍川空使酒。
贺兰山下阵如云， 羽檄交驰日夕闻。
节使三河募年少， 诏书五道出将军。
试拂铁衣如雪色， 聊持宝剑动星文。
愿得燕弓射大将， 耻令越甲鸣吾君。
莫嫌旧日云中守， 犹堪一战取功勋。
Interpretation:
The author of this poem mainly adopts the narrative technique to outline the life of a veteran general, writing that he was young and courageous and fought in the battlefield, and then was abandoned because of “no merit”. However, he was not convinced of old age, and when the beacon fire at the border was rekindled, his heart was renewed, and he still wanted to make great achievements for his country.
The whole poem can be divided into three parts, the first part, write the wisdom and courage of the general’s youth, achievements and unfair encounters. When he was a young man, he was wise and brave, captured the enemy’s horse on foot, and shot the ferocious white-fronted tiger. The author here from four aspects again and again rendering the old general of the bitter campaign, the achievements of the war, is in for the later writing the old general did not get the deserved reward to make a counterpoint. The author lamented the fate of the old general, but also attacked the feudal rulers, reward and punishment is not clear. The poem takes a sharp turn downward, from the previous boldness to write about the old general’s misfortune.
The second part of the poem is about the old general’s abandoned and miserable life. In the poet’s summary, the old general is old and gray. In the past, he used to have the skill of Hou Yi in shooting sparrows, but he has not practiced martial arts for a long time, and his arms are like sarcomas, which are not sharp anymore. Still used the contrasting technique, let a person look at it, the idea of feeling sorry. The author wrote the old general was abandoned after the hard life, but in such a situation, the old general is still thinking like Geng Gong, and the soldiers share the pain, and finally out of the desperate situation, never like the filling of the same, the use of wine to make a gas.
The third part of the writing of the border beacon has not yet rested, the old general always with a tassel to defend the country to kill the enemy’s heart. First write the border war again, the urgent documents are constantly sent to the capital. Secondly, the court recruited young people in the Sanhe area to join the army and go to the border. In such a situation, the veteran general could no longer sit still, and he began to practice martial arts again. He hoped to get the Yan bow to “shoot the generals” and eliminate the leaders of the enemy; he would never let the foreign enemies alarm the court.
The whole poem uses more canons, which not only enlarges the capacity of the poem to a certain extent, but also makes the whole poem seem to be subtle and elegant. While showing the old general’s sinking and depressing inner world and his impassioned ambition to pledge himself to the country, it also accuses the ruler of indifference and heartlessness to a general who has been through hundreds of battles, and expresses the disillusionment of the poet’s dissatisfaction with the career path.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
