First of all, I would like to thank you very much for sharing this poem.  Now, I have more material to practise my calligraphy!  :)

山雨夜鳴竹   mountain rain night sing bamboo

草虫秋近床   grass insect autumn near bed
流年那可駐   flowing year there can halt
白髮不禁長   white hair not contained/banned

The bamboo sighing in the mountain rain.

Insects1 and autumn approach2 my bed.

The flowing years cannot be halted,

Neither can I prevent my hair from turning white.

1.  草蟲 = "insects of the grass"  This is a term used for insects depicted in Chinese paintings.  These are usually butterflies, crickets, cicadas, grasshoppers etc.  Since butterflies are not night creatures and they don't make sounds, they can be crossed out.

2.  Some other verions used 入 (enter) instead.

The rain is falling outside and so the insects crept into his room.  Perhaps, he was asleep but was awakened by the sounds of the rain and the insects.  This would be the most probable scenario.

However, the rest of the poem talks about aging and dying; perhaps regrets in life etc;  So my active imagination came up with this image... The poet was sick and felt death was approaching.  The insects represent his chattering descendants coming to pay their last respect.  The bamboos represented his servants, friends, aquaintances since they were not in the room. I could be totally wrong... 

Great to have a discussion here :)

An Autumn Poem Written in Autumn

An autumn poem Written in Autumn By Chul Jung(1538~1593)

It rains on the mountain, patting the bamboo. The mountain rain patting down on the bamboo leaves,
The bug of autumn, cricket, is crying near my pillow. An autumn cricket, singing/serenading/crying by my pillow.
How can we stop time from passing? How can time be stopped?
Alas we cannot stop growing our graying hair.

This is how an English poem is expressed.  Since I don't know the original characters, hence the number of options for the cricket...  These options convey subtlety into the feel and tone.  Anyway, a very nice poem.

(This is a translation of an old Korean poem written in Chinese characters. Please correct my English. Thank you in advance.)

秋日作    by 松江 鄭澈

山雨夜鳴竹
草虫秋近床
流年那可駐
白髮不禁長