357

happy to see Lu Tong’s boat and his books back to Luo Yang

poor Meng’s suddenly better

things aren’t really so bad

the boat returning

its cargo of learning

green waves in the river

can never be sad

this is

an honest day

all its parts know

when to come

when to go

I give up robes of office

those colours

words like well cut jade

my burden

magpies won’t fly

they leap in the garden

the boat home safe

good news

I think I’ll build myself a nest

still some lucky branches left

off of the ground

and out of the dust

my palace of clouds

and morning glow

sun and moon by turns attend

morality, justice – I’ll live by the book

mountains too high for an old man to climb

dreams are as vain as they’re splendid

358

the librarian listens to a poem about a bossy sister-in-law

the superior man

like a hungry fish

swallows the rites

hook, line and sinker

the respectable sister-in-law

says ‘just one wife’

how touching!

but it’s too short

this just one life

359

mourning poem

the arbitrary emperor

(not naming names)

makes foolish and talented one

wise in such circs

to quit the city

the hungriest tiger

won’t eat its own son

lost in a village

the country has lost

bones join the soil

turn root and stem

but humans know no gratitude

I came here to mourn

nor dare I speak

something grievous

in this soil lies buried

shadow of an ancient sun

360

a second poem of mourning

the talented man lies sick in bed

the humble man weeps through each stage of life

we common folk fear that a mirror will break

the moon never fill up again

all words that are written

are yet to be changed

your voice, your face

at the Yellow Spring in the place below

you’ve left your trusty zither behind

left the much loved wind

how rare to find a true friend in this world

strings can never be heard where you go

361

mourning for my young son

I close a door against the world

no daylight out there anymore

vigour of those limbs

woven to wind

flesh to earth turned

ten years of gratitude for life

a thousand years of tears

won’t suffice

autumn will not wait

362

Yuan Lu Mountain series

wither the zither

just the wind knows

whether it’s telling

or bringing to blows

1

fiercest birds the best fed

how hungry the mountain

robbers are bloated

those seeking fame

may reach high office

toiling in fields

brings more toil

uncut jade is all the same

it’s men who make the difference

the mountain

not wishing to be cut

lacks rice

2

humans have it all worked out

for each there’s a right kind of righteousness

they rush around stirring up dust

strange pride leads to still stranger insults

whose reputation’s not impugned?

who goes unslighted?

moralism melts like mist

before me I see the winding track

the lonely mountain and I

make our ways

3

superior men

don’t look for trouble

trouble’s always

on the lookout

for them

it’s hard enough

to walk on the mountain

without a disputing mind

look up to the eloquent sky

look down – see the elegant earth

– heaven’s work

within?

like all else

of five elements

humans

the dao of the mountain

just where it is

there’s the eloquence of the empty gut

which tells

how

the changes of nature

need mending

with virtue

4

sages have a reputation

for vanishing

their dao is different

their reasoning right off our radar

no need to mention minor merits

when the stomach’s full

hunger you see

to the mountain is nothing

sages are of

vanishing reputation

5

step by step

is how you get high

try skipping

and you’ll only stumble

the sage’s clean entrails

clear sky on a cold day

sincerity

can be faked too

the smart man

outwits himself

chasing the mountain

till there’s no trace left