Sparrows in the Wild Field
- Poetry of Cao Zhi

《野田黄雀行》

English Rendering

Powerful winds will blow at lofty trees;

Violent waves will roar in mighty seas.

As the sword of power is not in my hand,

It is no good to make friends in the land.


Don't you see the sparrow on the hedge 

Snared while fleeing a falcon pulling fledge?

While the snarer is glad to catch the sparrow,

The young man feels sorry for the sparrow.


When he draws the sword and cut the snare,

The sparrow is set free to cut the air.

The sparrow soars as high as eyes can span 

And then returns to thank the kind young man.

Sparrows in the Wild Field by Cao Zhi
Sparrows in the Wild Field by Cao Zhi

Original Text (中文原文)

高树多悲风,海水扬其波。

利剑不在掌,结友何须多?

不见篱间雀,见鹞自投罗?

罗家得雀喜,少年见雀悲。

拔剑捎罗网,黄雀得飞飞。

飞飞摩苍天,来下谢少年。

Analysis & Context

Cao Zhi

Reader's Companion

The Essence of the Verse

Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.

Reading Between the Lines

Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.

© CN-Poetry.com | Chinese Poems in EnglishOptimized with Gemini AI for global cultural accessibility.
AI-AUGMENTED SYSTEM
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts.