吳蠶已三眠；
The silkworms thrice in sleep must have been.
我家寄東魯，
In Eastern Lu my family stay still.
誰種龜陰田？
Who’d help to sow our fields north of Lu Hill?
春事已不及，
It’s now too late to do farmwork of spring.
江行復茫然；
What then am I to do while travelling?
南風吹歸心，
The southern wind is blowing without stop,
飛墮酒樓前。
My heart flies back to my old familiar wine-shop.
樓東一株桃，
East of the shop there’s a peach tree I’ve missed,
枝葉拂青煙；
Its branches must be waving in bluish mist.
此樹我所種，
It is the tree I plant’d three years ago,
別來向三年。
If it has grown to reach the roof, I don’t know.
桃今與樓齊， 我行尚未旋。
I have not been at home for three long years.
嬌女字平陽，
I can imagine my daughter appears
折花倚桃邊；
Beside the tree and plucks a flower pink.
折花不見我，
Without seeing me, she must have, I think,
淚下如流泉。
Shed copious tears.
My younger son has grown
小兒名伯禽，
Up to his sister’s shoulders. ’Neath full-blown
與姐亦齊肩；
Peach tree they stand side by side.
But who’s there
雙行桃樹下，
To pat them on the back?
I feel, whence’er
撫背復誰怜。
I think of this, so painful that I write
念此失次第， 肝腸日憂煎； 裂素寫遠意， 因之汶陽川。
And send to them this poem on silk white.