2018-09-26



I built my hut near where people live
and yet I hear no traffic noise or sound of wheels.
Could you tell me what is happening?
An aloneness gathers around the soul that is alone.
I pick chrysanthemums underneath the east hedge,
the mountains to the south are clear.
The mountain air at sunset is so wonderful,
and the birds coming home, one after the other.
In all these details there are secret truths;
but when I try to shift to language, it all slops away.

--Tao Yuan-Ming (an approx of trans by Robert Bly,)


[via the beauty we love]

An alternate David Hinton version was posted on this blog November 30, 2013.



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