Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Sunday, November 30, 2008

300 Tang Dynasty Poems: #29, A Poem to a Taoist Hermit



The Tang Dynasty was regarded as a golden age of Chinese culture. The arts, epecially poetry was held in high esteem. No occasion was too small to be commerated in a poem. The finest works of this age have been collected in a famous anthology, The 300 Tang Dynasty Poems. If you click on the title of this post, you'll e directed to an online version of this classic. Below is #29. enjoy.


Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

A POEM TO A TAOIST HERMIT
CHUANJIAO MOUNTAIN



My office has grown cold today;
And I suddenly think of my mountain friend
Gathering firewood down in the valley
Or boiling white stones for potatoes in his hut....
I wish I might take him a cup of wine
To cheer him through the evening storm;
But in fallen leaves that have heaped the bare slopes,
How should I ever find his footprints!

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