English中文
Breaking the Enemy Ranks: Forty Years of Family and Country
四十年来家国，
三千里地山河。
凤阁龙楼连霄汉，
玉树琼枝作烟萝，
几曾识干戈？
Forty years, the house and the realm; three thousand li of hills and rivers. Phoenix pavilions and dragon towers reaching up to the Milky Way; jade trees and coral branches like mist and trailing vines — when did I ever know the clash of arms?
一旦归为臣虏，
沈腰潘鬓消磨。
最是仓皇辞庙日，
教坊犹奏别离歌，
垂泪对宫娥。
Then all at once I became a captive and a slave; the waist grown thin as Shen's, the temples streaked as Pan's, all worn away. Worst of all was that day I fled the ancestral temple in panic: the players of the Music Bureau still struck up the song of parting, and I shed my tears before the palace maids.
Reading notes
消磨 also appears as 销磨, 别离 as 离别, and 垂泪 as 挥泪. This page retains the former readings. 教坊 was a court music institution; 教 is read jiào.