Classic Poem

In a mirror of bronze
can be seen beauty and ugliness,
but the mirror of books is better,
where right and wrong are seen,
or the mirror of a man,
where can be seen the roots of good and evil,
or the workings of fortune!
Fortuneteller Hsüeh of Ho-tung
calls himself " Old Master Mirror. "
His godlike eyes are clear as autumn waters;
lightning flashes from his three-inch tongue!
He has correctly told:
that a lost man by the riverside
would be a high official;
that a lonely soul on the road
would be a rich man;
that one who in former years was a sleepy fellow in Shantung
was really a dragon, a tiger!
That one who is now a nobleman of Yen-shan
is really no great bear!
His words can be counted on to hit the mark:
there will be no discrepancy in the give-and-take of fate!
When he sees a son, he exhorts him to be filial;
when he sees a father, he exhorts him to be compassionate.
When he sees a minister, he exhorts him to be loyal.
The upright will always act properly,
the devious will inevitably slip.
This is how he mirrors the Tao
in accordance with the precepts of the ancients.
This Taoist of the Iron Cliff
once studied the Documents and the Poems,
and missed his true calling by accepting the chin-shih degree and the
purple robe.
Then one day, a gentleman of Dragon Gate
invited him to join his entourage,
and for ten years, he never rose in official rank —
what a slow career!
Now, among the Five Lakes, we meet, and discuss our lives:
he assures me I will again have an audience at the Golden Courtyard.
He has mirrored my mind, and understood it,
yielding nothing in knowledge to Tzu-ch'ing and T'ang Chü.
We get drunk together, play the flute ...
and then I leave,
the sky blue,
the moon among the branches of flowering pear.