Cuckoo, cuckoo, your clumsiness has no match.
Where do you fly from at dawn, where do you perch at dusk?
You neither hunt nor gather, but squawk all day in the spring rain.
Ghosts weep on the battlefield, the sky darkens;
Demons whisper in the marshlands through the night.
One call, two calls, clouds grow dim;
Three calls, four calls, water pours like a cascade.
Ten calls, a hundred calls, rain falls thick as cart axles;
A thousand calls, ten thousand calls, rivers surge, seas swell, the turtle palace tilts.
Xihe dares not push his chariot out;
The mermaids fear the damp and halt their loom.
Three feet of mud, a hundred merchants lie stranded;
Only one or two households have wisps of cooking smoke.
Cuckoo, cuckoo, you call for rain without cease—
Will you shut your beak or not?
I bow again to Heaven, offering words, wary of the wind.
Rain Master Pingyi, Cloud Master Fenglong,
Cuckoo, what are you, stealing Heaven's power to gather wickedness?
In clear skies you call your mate, in rain you chase her away;
You nest and breed, drifting east and west.
May Heaven command Houyi,
To take his strong bow and arrows,
And chase you beyond the nine regions, lest you multiply.
The ninefold gates of Heaven are veiled in dark mist;
The cuckoo flies back and forth.
The people's heads turn to fish heads in the flood;
Yet the cuckoo still cries without rest.
Once more I say: cuckoo, cuckoo,
Your form is tiny, your voice most mournful.
Your cries do not cease—what is in your heart?
In ancient times when the Yellow Emperor ruled,
Phoenixes nested in the palace eaves.
Then you did not cry; winds and rains were timely, the world was joyful.
And again under Emperor Shun, when the Shao music was perfected, phoenixes came.
Then you did not cry; winds and rains did not stray, the world was well-governed.
Now though you force your face, better shut your mouth and return to deep mountains.
Where mountains are deep, trees dense, a hundred birds rest at ease,
Amid falling blossoms and murmuring streams.
At autumn and spring equinoxes, change as you will;
Why must you chirp at the rain?
If now you refuse to leave, I can still forgive you.
But in Chang'an, many youths carry slingshots—
I urge you to hide your head and not meet them.