BY TU FU
FULL MOON
Isolate and full, the moon
Floats over the house by the river.
Into the night the cold water
Rushes away below the gate.
The bright gold spilled on the river is never still.
The brilliance of my quilt is greater than precious silk.
The circle without blemish.
The empty mountains without sound.
The moon hangs in the vacant, wide constellations.
Pine cones drop in the old garden.
The senna trees bloom.
The same clear glory extends for ten thousand miles.
BY LI CHING CHAO
THE DAY OF COLD FOOD
Clear and bright is the splendour of spring
on the Day of Cold Food.
The dying smoke rises from the jade animal
like a silk thread floating on the water.
I dream on the pile of cushions amongst
the scattered and broken hair ornaments.
The swallows have not come back from the southern sea,
but already men begin fighting for straws.
Petals fly from the peach trees along the river.
Willow catkins fill the air with floss.
And then-in the orange twilightfall widely spaced drops of rain.
BY LI FENG
Faintly upon the breeze
Come the scents of cassia and pine.
The moon's cold radiance
Bathes the temple hall.
Lapped in stillness,
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The hermit sits
And flies beyond the world.
To him, all sounds are silence
And there is nothing else at allJust all- pervading coolness.
Tao Yuanming
3 TRANSLATIONS
EASTERN FENCE
I’ve built my house where others dwell
And yet there is no clamor of carriages and
horses
You ask me how this is possible-- (And so I say):
When the heart is far, one is
transported
I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern fence
And serenely I gaze at the
southern mountains
At dusk, the mountain air is good
Flocks of flying birds are returning
home
In this, there is a great truth
But wanting to explain it, I forget the words (牡丹訳）
EASTERN FENCE
Within the world of men I make my home,
Yet din of horse and carriage there is none;
You ask me how this quiet is achieved: —
With thoughts remote the place appears alone.
While picking asters "neath the Eastern fence
My gaze upon the Southern mountain rests;
The mountain views are good by day or night,
The birds come flying homeward to their nests.
A truth in this reflection lies concealed,
But I forget how it may be revealed.
EASTERN FENCE
I built my house near where others live.
Still there’s no sound of wheels or voices.
You’ll ask me ‘How can that be?’
When the mind is remote the place is distant.
Cutting Chrysanthemums by the Eastern Hedge,
I look out towards the Southern Hills.
Mountain air is fine at end of day.
The flights of birds make for home.
In these things there is a hint of Truth,
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but trying to tell it there’s no mind, no words.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
You ask me:
Why do I live on this green mountain
I smile
No answer, my heart serene
On flowing water peach blow
quietly going far away
Another earth this is
Another sky
No likeness to that human world below.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
You ask me why I live alone
in the mountain forest
and I smile
and am silent
until even my soul
grows quiet
It lives in another world
one that no one owns.
The peach trees blossom
the water continues to flow
WANG WEI
TWO TRANSLATIONS
A GREEN STREAM
1
I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,
Borne by the channel of a green stream,
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains
On a journey of less than thirty miles....
Rapids hum over heaped rocks;
But where light grows dim in the thick pines,
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns
And weeds are lush along the banks.
3
...Down in my heart I have always been as pure
As this limpid water is....
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock
And to cast a fishing-line forever!
THE GREEN STREAM
2
To get to the Yellow Flower River
I always follow the green water stream
Among the hills there must be a thousand twists
the distance there cannot be fifty miles
There is the murmur of water among the rocks
and the quietness of colours deep in pines.
Lightly, lightly drifting water chestnuts
Clearly, clearly mirrored reeds and rushes
I have always been a lover of tranquility
and when I see this clear stream so calm
I want to stay on some great rock
and fish forever on and on.
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