While my eyes were
watching
the clouds that travel to the sea.
Li Po
Suddenly the walls of the hollow where I stood sundered with a crash,
and I looked down on a bottomless void of blue, where the sun and moon
gleamed on a terrace of silver and gold.
A host of Beings descended--Cloud-spirits, whose coats were made of
rainbow and the horses they rode on were the winds.
XV. 16. PARTING WITH FRIENDS AT A WINESHOP IN NANKING
The wind blowing through the willow-flowers fills the shop with scent;
A girl of Wu has served wine and bids the traveller taste.
The young men of Nanking have come to see me off;
I that go and you that stay | must each drink his cup.
I beg you tell the Great River | whose stream flows to the East
That thoughts of you will cling to my heart | when _he_ has ceased
to flow.
XV. 28. AT CHIANG-HSIA, PARTING FROM SUNG CHIH-T'I
Clear as the sky the waters of Hupeh
Far away will join with the Blue Sea;
We whom a thousand miles will soon part
Can mend our grief only with a cup of wine.
The valley birds are singing in the bright sun;
The river monkeys wail down the evening wind.
And I, who in all my life have seldom wept,
Am weeping now with tears that will never dry.
XX. 1. THE WHITE RIVER AT NAN-YANG
Wading at dawn the White River's source,
Severed a while from the common ways of men,
To islands tinged with the colours of Paradise,
Where the river sky drowns in limpid space.
While my eyes were watching the clouds that travel to the sea.
My heart was idle as the fish that swim in the stream.
With long singing I put the sun to rest:
Riding the moon,[45] came back to my fields and home.
[45] _I. e. _, "availing myself of the moonlight. "
XX. 1. THE CLEAR COLD SPRING
(_Literal Version. _)
Regret that dropping sun's dusk;
Love this cold stream's clearness.
Western beams follow flowing water;
Stir a ripple in wandering person's mind.
Idly sing, gazing at cloudy moon;
Song done--sound of tall pines.
XX. 8. GOING DOWN CHUNG-NAN MOUNTAIN AND SPENDING THE NIGHT DRINKING
WITH THE HERMIT TOU-SS?
At dusk we left the blue mountain-head;
The mountain-moon followed our homeward steps.
