7-character, regular verse:
清秋幕府井梧寒， 獨宿江城蠟炬殘。
永夜角聲悲自語， 中天月色好誰看？
風塵荏苒音書絕， 關塞蕭條行陸難。
已忍伶俜十年事， 強移棲息一枝安。
Clear and cold is this autumn night with parasol trees in the courtyard.
Alone in this river town, I watch the flame of a guttering candle.
From the dark outside comes the plaintive note of a bugle,
and though the moon is in mid-heaven, is there no-one to share with me?
My messengers are scattered amid clouds of rain and sand
and the city gates are closed to the traveller: high mountains are walls in my way.
I, who have borne the last ten years of pitiable existence,
find here a perch, a little branch, I feel safe for the night.
(a non-precise rather cavalier translation which needs an extra line co contain the limpid Chinese, but the essence is there.)
Du Fu, 712-770
