Official at Stone Moat Village
- Poetry of Du Fu

暮投石壕村，有吏夜捉人。

老翁逾墙走，老妇出门看。

吏呼一何怒！妇啼一何苦！

听妇前致词：三男邺城戍。

一男附书至，二男新战死。

存者且偷生，死者长已矣！

室中更无人，惟有乳下孙。

有孙母未去，出入无完裙。

老妪力虽衰，请从吏夜归。

急应河阳役，犹得备晨炊。

夜久语声绝，如闻泣幽咽。

天明登前途，独与老翁别。

At dusk, I stopped to rest at Stone Moat village,

An officer came that night to capture men.

The old man escaped by climbing over the wall,

The old wife went to look outside the door.

How angrily the officer now shouted,

How bitterly the wife did weep out loud!

I heard the words the wife was sending forth:

"Three sons of mine were sent to defend Yecheng.

From one of my sons, a letter has arrived,

The other two have recently died in battle.

The one who survived has kept alive for now,

The dead ones though have met their final end.

Inside this house, there are no people left,

There's just a grandson suckling on the breast.

The grandson's mother also cannot go,

She goes about without a skirt intact.

Although I'm an old woman with failing strength,

I ask you to take me with you tonight.

If you should need workers at Heyang,

I can prepare the morning meal for you."

Her voice then died away into the night,

I seemed to hear her sob and whimper still.

At dawn, before I set upon the road,

It's only from the old man that I part.