Home › Poems › Ballad of the Army Carts
Bīng Chē XíngBallad of the Army Carts 兵车行
Du Fu's protest against endless frontier wars.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
车辚辚，马萧萧
chē lín lín, mǎ xiāo xiāo
行人弓箭各在腰
xíng rén gōng jiàn gè zài yāo
耶娘妻子走相送
yé niáng qī zǐ zǒu xiāng sòng
尘埃不见咸阳桥
chén āi bù jiàn xián yáng qiáo
牵衣顿足拦道哭
qiān yī dùn zú lán dào kū
哭声直上干云霄
kū shēng zhí shàng gān yún xiāo
Simplified characters; traditional title: 兵車行. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.
English translation
Carts rumble and creak, horses neigh and whinny;
the marching men each carry bow and arrows at the waist.
Fathers, mothers, wives and children run to see them off;
the dust is so thick they cannot see Xianyang Bridge.
They tug at the men's clothes, stamp their feet, block the road and wail;
the sound of weeping rises straight up to the clouds.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The poem opens like a film: noise, dust, families running alongside the soldiers. Short three-character phrases imitate the rattle of carts. The sound of weeping rising "to the clouds" is both hyperbole and accusation. Later in the poem a soldier speaks directly, describing farms gone to weeds and bones on the frontier — a rare, bold criticism of the emperor's wars.
Background
Written around 751, when Emperor Xuanzong's campaigns on the frontiers demanded ever more conscripts. Du Fu uses an old ballad form but invents a new title and subject. Only the opening is shown.
Key words
- 辚辚 lín lín
- the rumbling of carts
- 萧萧 xiāo xiāo
- the neighing of horses
- 耶娘 yé niáng
- father and mother
- 咸阳桥 Xiányáng Qiáo
- a bridge west of Chang'an
About the poet: Du Fu
Du Fu (also romanized Tu Fu) lived through the An Lushan Rebellion, which tore apart the Tang empire and his own family life. His precise, compassionate poems record war, poverty and loyalty, earning him the titles "Sage of Poetry" and "poet-historian."
Lifetime: 712–770. Other famous works: Happy Rain on a Spring Night (春夜喜雨); The Prime Minister of Shu (蜀相); The Officer at Shihao Village (石壕吏); Thoughts While Traveling at Night (旅夜书怀); Qujiang (曲江); Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan (江南逢李龟年); Ballad of the Army Carts (兵车行); Moonlit Night (月夜); Spring View (春望); Climbing High (登高); Quatrain: Two Orioles (绝句·两个黄鹂鸣翠柳); On Yueyang Tower (登岳阳楼); My Thatched Hut Torn by the Autumn Wind (茅屋为秋风所破歌).
More by Du Fu
- Spring View春望
- Quatrain (The River Blue)绝句
- Climbing High登高
- On Yueyang Tower登岳阳楼
- Moonlit Night月夜
- Happy Rain on a Spring Night春夜喜雨
- Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan江南逢李龟年
- Qujiang曲江