Master T’ao, I can’t compete with you!
Forever snarled up in official business,
what can I do to break away,
live just once a life like yours?
Thorns grow in the field of the mind;
clear them and there’s no finer place.
Free the mind—let it move with the world
and doubt nothing it finds there!
In wine I stumbled on unexpected joy.
Now I always have an empty cup in hand.

translated by Burton Watson