<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=373363" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Ballad Of The Press-Gang At Shihao Village</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">One evening I found lodging in a village where <br>A press-gang stole by night to seize my aging host,<br>Who, hearing them, scaled the wall and hid nearby.<br>Furious, the bailiff bellowed at the gate <br>Until the woman of the house unbarred the door,<br>Stepped out, and offered up this pitiful reply:<br>“Three boys I nursed and raised and, on the selfsame day,<br>Saw them sent off to the garrison at Yeh.<br>My oldest boy, he sent a letter by and by <br>To say the other two were lying in their graves<br>And he himself was living but a stolen life— <br>‘O Mother dear, how short we live, how long we die!’<br>And now there’s not another male under my roof<br>Besides this man-child nursing at his mother’s breast.<br>That you could find some use for her I’ll not deny,<br>But as you see she hardly has a stitch to wear,<br>And there’s the child to think of—so why not think on this?<br>Granted I am old and gray yet I am spry <br>Enough to keep up with the other conscripts, and<br>I know I’ve strength to serve the men their morning meals.”<br>With that the voices died, though now and then a cry<br>Or plaintive sob choked off the silence of the night.<br>At break of day, when I continued on my way,<br>No one was left but that old man to say goodbye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Du+Fu">Du Fu</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=373363" data-title="Ballad Of The Press-Gang At Shihao Village de Du Fu" data-description="One evening I found lodging in a village where A press-gang stole by night to seize my aging host, Who, hearing them, scaled the wall and hid nearby. Furious, the bailiff bellowed at the gate Until the woman of the house unbarred the door, Stepp..."></div> </div> </div>

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