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Yuan Chi
Inscribe on your heart Every measure of the time at sunset Adjust your sleeves, unsheathe a slender sword, Look up at the passing clouds. Among them a dark stork Raises its head and rattles its beak Darting aloft it vanishes into the sky. Never again will it be heard. It is no company for the cuckoos and the crows That circle round the dusty court. |
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Lu Yun
Living in retirement beyond the world, Silently enjoying isolation. I pull the rope of my door tighter And stuff the window with roots and ferns. My spirit is tuned to the spring-time. At the end of the year there is autumn in my heart. Thus imitating cosmic changes My cottage becomes a Universe. |
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Li Po |
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Wang Wei In solitude sitting in the hidden forest of bamboos. To the sound of the lute whistling suspended notes. In the secrecy of the wood I see no one. The bright moon watches me with its light. The dark void reverberates a profound song. I sit in peaceful meditation subduing poison dragons. |
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Tu Fu I am sleepless in the glow and shadow of the lamplight. The heart at peace breathes the incense of dedication. Between the temple walls the night is an abyss. The bronze wind bells quiver in the breeze. The courtyard shuts in the deep darkness of the spring night. In the darkness, the scintillating pool exhales the scent of flowers. The Northern Cross traverses the sky, cut by the temple eave. On the roof an iron phoenix soars and twists the air. The chanting of prayers floats from the hall. Fading bell notes eddy about my bed. Tomorrow, in the sunlight, I shall walk in the manured fields, And weep for the yellow dust of the dead. |
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Han-shan I climb the path to Cold Mountain, the path that never ends. The valleys are long and strewn with stones. The moss is slippery though no rain has fallen. The pines sigh but there is no wind. Who can break from the dusty snares of the world and sit with me among the white clouds? |
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Shi-te Far, far away, steep mountain paths, treacherous and narrow, ten thousand li up. Over boulders and bridges and lichens of green, White clouds are ever seen soaring; A waterfall suspends in mid-air like a bolt of silk. The reflection of the moon falls glittering on a deep pool. I shall climb up the magnificent mountain peak, To await the arrival of a solitary crane. |
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Te Ch'ing
The mountains stand unmoving, All day they let the clouds roll out and in. Even though red dust is countless layers deep, Not a single speck reaches my thatched hut. |
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Ching An A pine or two, three or four bamboo, cliffside cottage, long, solitary silence, only floating clouds come to visit. |
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