English Rendering
How hard do soldiers work and toil,
Building ramparts on western soil!
Iron-clad bastions high and low
Like walls along the mountain go.
I ask an officer near by
If against foes are built walls high.
He asks me to dismount and look
Around and points to mountain nook.
The forts on the peaks scrape the sky,
Over them even birds can’t fly.
When come the foe, we guard the wall,
There’s no fear for the capital.
He shows me the narrow pass too,
Only single chariots file through.
When guarded with long spear by one,
The fortress can be forced by none.
But defeated at Peach Grove, alas!
Ten thousand men slain at the pass.
Please tell the general guarding here:
Be not defeated as that year!
