Send Off Military Official Ping Danran
送平淡然判官
不 识 阳 关 路
新 从 定 远 侯。
黄 云 断 春 色
画 角 起 边 愁。
瀚 海 经 年 到
交 河 出 塞 流。
须 令 外 国 使
知 饮 月 支 头。
Song Ping Dan Ran Pan Guan
Bu shi yang guan lu
Xin cong ding yuan hou.
Huang yun duan chun se
Hua jiao qi bian chou.
Han hai jing nian dao
Jiao he chu sai liu.
Xu ling wai guo shi
Zhi yin yue zhi tou.
Send Off Military Official Ping Danran
Do not know this faraway region, and the major gate road leading to it
Recently, you joined up to be a Dingyuan.
Yellow dust clouds a long way from the colors of spring
Their army’s marching tunes produce melancholy.
Desert so vast, it takes one year to reach its edge
Jiao River flows out beyond the Great Wall border.
You have to make the foreign emissaries understand
Let them know we have drunk from the skull of the Yuezhi leader.
Notes:
Dingyuan: A foreign envoy so named during from the Han Dynasty times.
Yuezhi leader: Ancient tribes living in western China and northern India from the third century BC to the first century AD among the grasslands of current western Gansu Province. Important in the development of the Silk Road and for the introduction of Buddhism into China.
