A Song of Wheel Tower in Farewell to General Feng of the Western Expedition
- Poetry of Cen Shen

On Wheel Tower parapets night-bugles are blowing,

Though the flag at the northern end hangs limp.

Scouts, in the darkness, are passing Quli,

Where, west of the Hill of Gold, the Tartar chieftain has halted

We can see, from the look-out, the dust and black smoke

Where Chinese troops are camping, north of Wheel Tower.

...Our flags now beckon the General farther west-

With bugles in the dawn he rouses his Grand Army;

Drums like a tempest pound on four sides

And the Yin Mountains shake with the shouts of ten thousand;

Clouds and the war-wind whirl up in a point

Over fields where grass-roots will tighten around white bones;

In the Dagger River mist, through a biting wind,

Horseshoes, at the Sand Mouth line, break on icy boulders.

...Our General endures every pain, every hardship,

Commanded to settle the dust along the border.

We have read, in the Green Books, tales of old days-

But here we behold a living man, mightier than the dead.

-- Poem translator: Kiang Kanghu

轮台城头夜吹角，轮台城北旄头落。

羽书昨夜过渠黎，单于已在金山西。

戍楼西望烟尘黑，汉军屯在轮台北。

上将拥旄西出征，平明吹笛大军行。

四边伐鼓雪海涌，三军大呼阴山动。

虏塞兵气连云屯，战场白骨缠草根。

剑河风急雪片阔，沙口石冻马蹄脱。

亚相勤王甘苦辛，誓将报主静边尘。

古来青史谁不见，今见功名胜古人。