白翎雀歌
[元]虞集
乌桓[1]城下白翎雀[2]，
雌雄相呼以为乐。
平沙无树托[3]营巢，
八月雪深黄草薄。
君不见旧时飞燕在昭阳[4]，
沉沉宫殿锁鸳鸯。
芙蓉露冷秋宵永[5]，
芍药风暄[6]春昼长。
注释：
[1]乌桓：古时北方少数民族名。
[2]白翎雀：白色羽毛的雁雀。
[3]托：筑造。
[4]昭阳：泛指后妃居住的宫殿。
[5]永：无穷尽，时间长。
[6]暄：温暖。
Song of White-plumed Skylarks
Yu Ji
The white-plumed skylarks’ neath Mongolian city wall,
Male and female, delight in hearing mutual call.
In desert there’s no tree for them to build their nest;
’Mid withered grass beneath eighth moon’s deep snow they rest.
Have you not seen
The Flying Swallow[1] in Sunny Palace of yore
And many love-birds locked up within somber door?
They heard dew drip on lotus each cold autumn night
And saw the breeze caress peonies in spring bright.
注释：
[1]The Flying Swallow was the favorite mistress of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty in the first century BC.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian army marched southward and unified the country. China’s territory was unprecedentedly vast. Some customs and affairs that were unknown in remote border areas were presented to the southern scholars, which opened their eyes. Even a small bird, the white-winged sparrow, consumed a lot of poets’ pens and ink because of its unique personality. It was chanted in the collections of famous poets such as Yu Ji, Zhang Xian, Yang Weizhen, and Zhang Yu. Yu Ji’s poem was the most praised. The white-winged sparrow is a kind of lark, also known as the Mongolian lark. It lives in the extreme north. The male and female sing in harmony. Even in severe cold, it does not move. Yu Ji’s poem starts with the habits of the white-winged sparrow, saying that the white-winged sparrow lives far away under the city of Wu Huan. They are accompanied by the vast desert, with no trees to build nests; in the north, snow falls in August, the grass is dry and the snow is deep, and it is difficult to make a living. However, the white-winged sparrows fly and live together in this harsh environment, and they are happy. These few sentences give a general description of the white-winged sparrow, which makes people admire the spirit of the male and female white-winged sparrows, which are inseparable and have the courage to fight tenaciously against nature.
