韋應物《虞獲子鹿（并序）》“A gamekeeper obtained a fawn (with preface)” by Wei Yingwu (737?-791)

憫園鹿也，遭虞之機張，見畜於人，不得遂其天性焉。

Pitying a deer in the yard caught by a gamekeeper’s device and domesticated, thus unable to fulfil its nature.

虞獲子鹿，

畜之城陬。

園有美草，

池有清流。

但見蹷蹷，

亦聞呦呦。

誰知其思，

巖谷云遊。

A gamekeeper obtained a fawn

And kept it in a coign of the rampart,

With tender grass in the yard,

Clear water in the pool.

[We] just see it pacing to and fro,

And hear it bleating on and on.

Who knows its heart

That roams the rocky dales.

* From Wei Yingwu, Wei Yingwu shiji xinian jiaojian 韋應物詩集繫年校箋 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2002), 10.513.

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Fallow deer, either orphans or rescued from road accidents, now kept in the reconstructed Norman Mountfitchet Castle, England