Song of the Wagons
Du Fu



Wagons rumble rumble horses whinny whinny
Foot person bow arrow each at waist
Father mother wife children go mutual see off
Dust dust not see Xianyang bridge
Pull clothes stamp foot bar way weep
Weep sound directly up strike clouds clouds
Road side passerby ask foot person
Foot person only say mark down often
All from ten five north guard river
Convenient until four ten west army fields
Leave time village chief give bind head
Return come head white go back garrison border
Border post shed blood become sea water
Warlike emperor unlimited desire no end
Gentleman not see Han homes hill east two hundred districts
1000 villages 10000 hamlets grow thorns trees
Though be strong women hold hoe plough
Seed grow dyked field not order
Besides again Qin soldier withstand bitter fighting
Be driven not different dogs and chickens
Venerable elder though be ask
Battle person dare state bitterness
Even like this year winter
Not stop pass west soldier
District official urgent demand tax
Tax tax way how pay
True know produce males bad
Contrast be produce females good
Produce female still get married neighbour
Produce male bury follow hundred grass
Gentleman not see Qinghai edge
Past come white skeleton no person gather
New ghost vexed injustice old ghosts weep
Heaven dark rain wet sound screech screech
The wagons rumble and roll, the horses whinny and neigh,
The conscripts walk with bows and arrows at their waists.
Parents, wives and children run to see them off,
The dust that's stirred up even hides the Xianyang bridge.
They pull clothes weeping, stamp their feet and bar the way,
The weeping voices rise straight up and strike the clouds.
A passer-by at the roadside asks a conscript why,
The conscript answers only that drafting happens often.
"At fifteen, many were sent north to guard the river,
Then at forty sent to till fields in the west.
When we went away, the elders bound our heads,
Returning with heads white, we're sent off to the frontier.
At the border posts, shed blood becomes a sea,
There is no limit to the martial emperor's greed.
have you not seen the two hundred districts east of the mountains,
Where thorns and brambles grow in countless villages and hamlets?
Although there are strong women to grasp the hoe and the plough,
They grow some crops, but there's no order in the fields.
What's more, we soldiers of Qin withstand the bitterest fighting,
We're always driven onwards just like dogs and chickens.
Although an elder can ask me this,
How can a soldier dare to complain?
Even in this winter time,
Soldiers from west of the pass keep moving.
The magistrate is eager for taxes,
But how can we afford to pay?
We know now having boys is bad,
While having girls is for the best;
Our girls can still be married to the neighbours,
Our sons are merely buried amid the grass.
Have you not seen on the border of Qinghai,
The ancient bleached bones no man's gathered in?
The new ghosts are angered by injustice, the old ghosts weep,
Moistening rain falls from dark heaven on the voices' screeching."


View Chinese text in traditional characters.

Other Chinese poems about War.

Notes: The Xianyang bridge was southwest of Chang'an. The soldiers tilling fields in the west worked at garrisons with their own farms, to make them self-sufficient. The martial emperor was emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, here standing in for the current emperor. Qin and west of the pass both refer to the Chang'an area; Qinghai is on the border with Tibet.