300 tang poems-王昌龄(wangchangling)-塞下曲(sai xia qu)

Translation (meaning) of 王昌龄(wangchangling)-塞下曲(sai xia qu)

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.