A Short-Song Ballad
- Poetry of Cao Cao

对酒当歌，人生几何？

譬如朝露，去日苦多。

慨当以慷，忧思难忘。

何以解忧，唯有杜康。

青青子衿，悠悠我心。

但为君故，沉吟至今。

呦呦鹿鸣，食野之苹。

我有嘉宾，鼓瑟吹笙。

明明如月，何时可掇。

忧从中来，不可断绝。

越陌度阡，枉用相存。

契阔谈宴，心念旧恩。

月明星稀，乌鹊南飞。

绕树三匝，何枝可依？

山不厌高，海不厌深。

周公吐哺，天下归心。

The wine, the song, life goes on —

But for how long?

It evaporates, to our dismay,

Like the morning dew, day after day.

Ambition and aspiration sustain me,

But a secret thread of grief worries me.

How can I brush it aside

But by drowning it in wine?

Scholars, scholars, where are you?

Years I have chanted the song of yearning —

But would you ever come over to me?

Deer are calling from the field, grazing

On the tender marsilea.

Let my house be graced with a learned visitor,

I will have music played in his honour.

But he is as bright as the moon,

And how could I make a moon stay?

Here my sorrows surface and swell,

And refuse to go away.

Talented friends, whom I love, I treasure,

For a rendezvous no journey is too long!

Would you mind coming, to our meeting,

To our feast, back to old-days' feeling?

The stars so dim, the moon so bright,

Southbound birds are flying, circling

Round and round over the tree —

On which bough are you alight?

The water can never be too deep,

And the mountain too high.

When an open-minded king calls for talent,

It is him the would must stand by.