雪中啄草冰上宿，翅冷騰空飛動遲。
江童持網捕將去，手攜入市生賣之。
Among the snow it pecked for grass; and rested on the surface of the ice: It tried with its wings to scale the sky; but its tired flight was slow. The boys of the river spread a net and caught the bird as it flew; They took it in their hands to the city-market and sold it there
我本北人今譴謫，人鳥雖殊同是客。
見此客鳥傷客人，贖汝放汝飛入雲。
alive. I that was once a man of the North am now an exile here: Bird and man, in their different kind, are each strangers in the south. And because the sight of an exiled bird wounded an exile’s heart, I paid your ransom and set you free, and you flew away to the clouds.
鴈鴈汝飛向何處？第一莫飛西北去。
淮西有賊討未平，百萬甲兵久屯聚。
Yen, Yen, flying to the clouds, tell me, whither shall you go? Of all things I bid you, do not fly to the land of the north-west In Huai-hsi there are rebel bands[78] that have not been subdued; And a thousand thousand armoured men have long been camped in war. The official army and the rebel army have grown old in their opposite trenches;
官軍賊軍相守老，食盡兵窮將及汝。
健兒飢餓射汝喫，拔汝翅翎爲箭羽。
The soldier’s rations have grown so small, they’ll be glad of even you. The brave boys, in their hungry plight, will shoot you and eat your flesh; They will pluck from your body those long feathers and make them into arrow-wings!