Original text:
Weeds are boundless and poplars are rustling. In mid-September, severe frost sent me out of the outer suburbs. No one lives on all sides, and the high graves wither. The horse cries to the sky, and the wind is depressed. It's not a thousand years since the secluded room was closed.
A thousand years later, there is nothing the wise can do. Always send people away and return to their homes. Relatives or sorrows, others have also sung. What's the way to die? I'm on the same mountain.
Translation:
The vast wilderness is yellow, and the bleak autumn wind shakes the poplars. It's already the middle of September. My relatives sent me to the outer suburbs for burial. There are no people around, and the grave is high and desolate. The horse is sad, and the wind is sad and bleak. The tomb has been sealed in darkness and will never see the dawn.
You will never see the dawn, and neither will the sages. Those who had just been sent to the funeral went back to their rooms. Relatives may still be sad, and others have long forgotten to sing. What can I say when I am dead? I'm stuck in the mountains.
Source: Tao Yuanming Collection-Song Tao Yuanming
Extended data
Creation background
Whether Tao Yuanming lived only in his fifties (according to Liang Qichao and Gu Zhi) or 63 (according to Song Shuzhuan and Yan Yanzhi's Tao Zhengshi) is still controversial. Therefore, whether this group of "three elegies to be written" will be written before death is controversial.
In the Chronicle of Tao Yuanming's Deeds and Poems, Kuai said that Tao lived to the age of 63 and almost died of a serious illness at the age of 51. At this time, I wrote three elegies. Wu Xiaoru thinks that these three poems were written when Tao Yuanming was seriously ill, at least when he thought he was going to die.
As for the specific writing time, since Mourning for Self clearly states that "Ding Mao is the only age, and there is no way to shoot", that is, September in the fourth year of Yuanjia, Song Wendi, and the fourth sentence of the third poem of Mourning for Self says that "weeds are boundless, poplars are rustling, and first frost is in the middle of September, send me out of the outer suburbs", which is exactly the same as the season of Mourning for Self. So these three poems are the author's last words, just two months before Tao Yuanming died.
Baidu encyclopedia-three elegy poems