The Jade Mountain/To My Friends Li Tan and Yüan Hsi
TO MY FRIENDS LI TAN AND YÜAN HSI
We met last among flowers, among flowers we parted,And here, a year later, there are flowers again;But, with ways of the world too strange to foretell,Spring only brings me grief and fatigue.I am sick, and I think of my home in the country—Ashamed to take pay while so many are idle.. . . In my western tower, because of your promise,I have watched the full moons come and go.