Li Tai-Po in Spring

T’ang light:

Weak wine – Strong blossoms.

 

For the exile,

Hesian cherries weep in a pinkwind.

 

Dividing infinity,

A bell rings in the monastery tower.

 

In white migration of dancing clouds,

For hours,

Continents form and submerge across the darkening west without incident.

 

In a paused wind,

Beyond the gate,

Falling rocks echo into scroll-paintings of black bamboo.

 

So few evenings go to make up a century.

A bell rings —

 

For you,

It was enough to dream in jade of remote fields,

And let the world slip away.