崢嶸赤云西，Out of the thick layers of cloud,

日腳下平地。The setting sun projected its rays onto the ground.

柴門鳥雀噪，Amid the noise of chirping birds outside the wood door,

歸客千里至。A weary man returned home from afar.

妻孥怪我在，My wife and kids were at a loss.

驚定還拭淚。They started to weep as recovering from the shock.

世亂遭飄蕩，  In these years of tumoil,

生還偶然遂！  My survival was purely a fluke.

鄰人滿墻頭，The neighbors gathered on the walls,

感嘆亦歔欷。  all sighing a sigh of sadness and sympathy.

夜闌更秉燭， In the dead of the night, under dim candlelight,

相對如夢寐。 My wife and I were speechless, like in the dream.

FYI, My brother-in-law owns a calligraphy on the subject poem written by Dr. Hu Shi.  The receiver of the calligraphy is his father-in-law, who is the younger brother of Dr. Chen Xingshen, one of the greatest mathematicians of the modern era. BTW, the poem is part one of 羌村, and I will try to translate the other two in my later postings.