Monday, July 19, 2004

Loving the Mountains


Oleh: Li Bai
#1
You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
As the peach-blossom flows down stream
and is gone into the unknown,
I have a world apart that is not among men.

#2
All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I.


Oleh: Han-shan
I climb the path to Cold Mountain,
the path that never ends.
The valleys are long and strewn with stones.
The moss is slippery though no rain has fallen.
The pines sigh but there is no wind.
Who can break from the dusty snares of the world
and sit with me among the white clouds?

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