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You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest

Li Po, Li Po poetry, Taoist, Taoist poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Li Po
(701 - 762) Timeline

English version by
Sam Hamill

Original Language
Chinese

Taoist
8th Century

You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom,
The water flows.

 

 

-- from Endless River: Li Po and Tu Fu: A Friendship in Poetry, Translated by Sam Hamill

Amazon.com

 


/ Photo by neil alejandro /

Themes

  Bower
  Mountain
  Silence
  Smile
  Spring Blossom


Recommended Books


Endless River: Li Po and Tu Fu: A Friendship in Poetry, Translated by Sam Hamill
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell
A Feast of Lanterns, Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng
Li Pai: 200 Selected Poems, Translated by Rewi Alley
Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems, Translated by Arthur Cooper

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet...


These lines give me chills.

The mind at rest, the entire self at rest, all silt having settled, leaving only quiet clarity. One becomes empty, a spacious, silent witness to the world's unfolding.

The peach trees blossom,
The water flows


Fall silent this weekend, witness wonders!

 

 


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