Li Po
Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.Clouds darken with darkness of rain,Streams pale with pallor of mist.The Gods of Thunder and LightningShatter the whole range.The stone gate breaks asunderVenting in the pit of heaven,An impenetrable shadow.. . . But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,With tigers for their lute-players and phœnixes for dancers.Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures. . . .I move, my soul goes flying,I wake with a long sigh,My pillow and my mattingAre the lost clouds I was in.. . . And this is the way it always is with human joy:Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.. . . But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deerAnd ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high officeWho never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!
(34a)
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