I sit here alone, mourning for us both.
How many years do I lack now of my threescore and ten?
There have been better men than I to whom heaven denied a son,
There was a poet better than I whose dead wife could not hear him.
What have I to hope for in the darkness of our tomb?
You and I had little faith in a meeting after death-
Yet my open eyes can see all night
That lifelong trouble of your brow.
闲坐悲君亦自悲，百年都是几多时。
邓攸无子寻知命，潘岳悼亡犹费词。
同穴窅冥何所望，他生缘会更难期。
惟将终夜长开眼，报答平生未展眉。
Seven-character-regular-verse
"An Elegy III" was composed by Yuan Zhen about a year after his wife Wei Cong's passing while serving as Imperial Censor. Continuing the elegiac tone of its predecessors, this poem expresses the poet's profound sorrow and sense of loss. Through meditations on life's brevity, remembrance of the departed, and futile fantasies of posthumous reunion, it reveals Yuan Zhen's deep affection and despair. More poignant than the previous two poems, it brims with helplessness and inconsolable grief.
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.
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.
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