Light lie the earth upon his dear dead heart,
And dreams disturb him never.
Be deeper peace than Paradise his part
Forever and forever.

When I go alone to fast at the temple,
affairs of the dusty world are no more my concern.
Refusing horse and saddle, I go by indigo carrying chair.
Black-robed Buddhists I take for friends now.
Morning meal—just some medicinal greens;
night companion—only the gauze lamp.
If you overlook my blue official's jacket,
in all other respects I'm a monk!

Age — forty-five,
hair on the sides gone half gray,
slender and trim, poetry his great failing,
brusque, hearty, a bit wild when drinking,
older now, leaving all to fate,
any place comfortable he calls home.
Who knows — on Mount Lu next spring
he may even build a thatch-roofed hall!

I shut myself in with my soul,
And the shapes come eddying forth.

‘Was it a friend or foe that spread these lies?’
‘Nay, who but infants question in such wise?
'Twas one of my most intimate enemies.’

As balmly as the breath of her you love
When deep between her breasts it comes to you.

Oh! May sits crowned with hawthorn-flower,
And is Love's month, they say;
And Love's the fruit that is ripened best
By ladies' eyes in May.

In darkness I climb the riverbank, stand here alone:
wind over the water, frosty air — a chill chill evening.
I turn, look back at the boat moored in the cove —
among blossoms of reeds and rushes, one gleam of light.

When I was young I drove myself, strained my eyes reading;
in late years, grieving, I've shed so many tears —
for all I know the hurt to my eyes is wholly self-inflicted;
ailing now, I understand, but what's to be done?
Evenings my vision dims, as though the lamp were fading;
mornings, bleary-eyed, I think the mirror hasn't been cleaned.
A thousand drugs, ten thousand remedies can work no cure —
nothing to do but close my eyes, practice Buddhist austerities.

A mat in the clear breeze by the eaves;
under the pines, a wine cup in the moonlight —
there's subtle meaning in just such things,
much more so when an old friend comes!