300 Tang Dynasty Poems: #32 East of the Town

The Tang Dynasty was considered a cultural golden age of China. Especially esteemed was poetry. The finest poems of that era are collected in an anthology entitled The 300 Tang Dynasty Poems. If you follow the link, you'll be directed to an online version.

In the meantime, below is #32, East of the Town

From office confinement all year long,
I have come out of town to be free this morning
Where willows harmonize the wind
And green hills lighten the cares of the world.
I lean by a tree and rest myself
Or wander up and down a stream.
...Mists have wet the fragrant meadows;
A spring dove calls from some hidden place.
...With quiet surroundings, the mind is at peace,
But beset with affairs, it grows restless again....
Here I shall finally build me a cabin,
As Tao Qian built one long ago.