王昌龄

塞下曲

饮马渡秋水， 水寒风似刀。

平沙日未没， 黯黯见临洮。

昔日长城战， 咸言意气高；

黄尘足今古， 白骨乱蓬蒿。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

UNDER A BORDER-FORTRESS

Drink, my horse, while we cross the autumn water！-

The stream is cold and the wind like a sword,

As we watch against the sunset on the sandy plain,

Far, far away, shadowy Lingtao.

Old battles, waged by those long walls,

Once were proud on all men's tongues.

But antiquity now is a yellow dust,

Confusing in the grasses its ruins and white bones.