Classic Poem

Three Pagoda Dragon Pond,
Thousand-year-old spot below
the ancient dragon shrine:
how many destructions has it suffered
yet it still survives,
quiet place, where one lone monk returns.
Dark foliage, a path
runs straight beneath pine branches;
a tower, stories high,
glittering green and gold.
Prayers for harvest, prayers for rainfall,
here do reach the god;
beneath the shrine,
evening clouds arise.

A level forest stretching far and wide,
a country stream, rippling waves.
Over this expanse, the evening sun sinks:
suffering, I travel foreign land.
In thatch-roofed inn, I meet the moon again;
the road to my village is indirect and far .
At the ferry, after everyone's gone home,
the fishermen make music as they move oars of wood .