Anonymous: "Waiting on Him: A Dunhuang Song" (From Chinese)

A popular song from the mid-Tang dynasty, from a collection recovered in a scroll-cave at Dunhuang. Unlike most Song verse in this genre in the early period (but like most other lyrics in the peculiar collection it is taken from, the 雲謠集) this lyric appears to have been actually composed by a woman, rather than by a man in a woman's voice.

Waiting On Him (To the tune of "Bowing to the Moon")
By Anonymous
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Off to another land my wayward man has gone　
 　But now the new year has well-nigh come
And he hasn't made it home　
 　I hate his love that runs like water　
So reckless and so ready to roam　
He couldn't care less for home　
　Beneath the flowers I turn and pray
 　To the powers of heaven and earth and say 
　　Till this very day
He has left me in this empty room alone　

 I see above me the blues of heaven's dome
　I am sure the moon and stars and sun 　
Must know about my pain　
　I lean at the window-screen alone 　
　And let the tears come streaming down
　　On my gold-beaded silken gown
And cry away at unlucky fate　
 　And how messed up my karma has become
Still I pray I see his face　
 　And I swear I'll give him hell when he gets home


The Original:

拜新月

蕩子他州去　　
已經新歲未還歸
堪恨情如水　　
到處輙狂迷　　
不思家國　　　
花下遙指祝神明
直至于今　　　
拋妾獨守空閨　

上有宆蒼在　　
三光也合遙知　
倚帡幃坐　　　
淚流點滴　　　
金縷羅衣　　　
—自嗟薄命　　
緣業至于思　　
乞求待見面　　
誓辜伊