another one from Han Shan

Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter–
Yet no one travels this road.
White clouds idle about the tall crags;
On the green peak a single monkey wails.
What other companions do I need?
I grow old doing as I please.
Though face and form alter with the years,
I hold fast to the pearl of the mind.

translated by Burton Watson

One thought on “another one from Han Shan

  1. Yes yes. Whoever he was, and however many poets he may have been, there’s a magical consistency to the Han Shan poems.

    In Seaton’s book, poem # XX ends with–

    I search a stream that has no source.
    The spring dried up, but the stream water’s still flowing.

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