Returning to the Xuandu Temple
Hundreds of acres—this garden is covered with moss;
Peach flowers now cauliflowers, filling to the end.
Where did the monk who tended this soil go?
Once I was young and now I’m back here again.
Original in Chinese
Cutting Wood
How to cut wood?
It’s hard without an axe.
How to find a wife?
It’s hard without a go-between.
Cutting wood… cutting wood…
The rule’s pretty clear:
To find a girl
You need a lot of gifts.
Translated from an anonymous poem in the Shijing, a classic Chinese poetry anthology written around the 7th-11th centuries BC.