I see not the Yangcheng Post Station,
Only chant the verses of the ancients in vain.
Who changed its name to 'Avoiding the Worthy'?
The first to sing of it was Yuan Weizhi.
Weizhi, exiled to Jiangling,
Haggard, served as a petty judge.
Lodging at the Shangshan Post one night,
He sighed deeply in lament.
What he mourned was Yang Daozhou,
Upright and unyielding in the Zhenyuan era.
He too was banished then,
To the southern wilds, ending with a command.
He inscribed a poem and changed the station's name,
How lofty and rare its force and style!
Letian in the Hanlin Academy,
Also echoed the exile's verse.
Thus made the name of Daozhou
Shine and race with sun and moon.
Decades after this event,
Who, pray, passed by and wrote?
Inscribed at Fushui Post was found
The work of Du Zihwei.
Zihwei said the station's name
Should not be lightly altered.
He wished those going to court
To be wary, knowing this place.
One, to avoid naming before spirits,
Cannot bear to call the name.
One, to warn the multitude with the name,
The name remains to teach a lesson.
Though their good deeds differ,
They converge at the base of transformation.
Now another century has passed,
Compilations lie scattered, incomplete.
I am exiled to Shangluo commandery,
Punished, my body held captive.
Old poems can still be chanted,
But the ancient post leaves no trace.
Fushui's site may yet exist,
But who knows the name Yangcheng?
Vainly I think of those noble men,
Strung like pearls, one after another.
Three stanzas of verse not yet lost,
Their names through ages follow still.
If virtuous echoes do not continue,
My path should cease right here.
If former worthies fared like this,
Why should I now grieve anew?
I inscribe this at Shangyu Post,
Chanting to console myself.