英文李约瑟传里说，这是李约瑟翻译的“少年听雨歌楼上……”，有意译的地方，比如歌楼翻成了tower，罗帐省略。

As a young man ,listening to the girls in a tower

        I heard the sound of the rain,

While the red candle burned dim in the damp air.

In middle age, travelling by boat on a river,

        I listened to the rain falling, falling:

   The river was wide and clouds drifted above;

I heard the solitary cry of a teal borne on the west wind.

   And now in a cloister cell I hear the rain again,

             My hair is grey and sparse;

Sadness and Happiness, separation and reunion, all seem one,

               They move me no more.

    Let the rain drop all night on the deserted pavement

               Till the day dawns.