From three Chinese Poems (up in the Zagori mountains); Postcards from China, May 1988 (Trans-Siberian Railway)

Poet on a Mountain

"White clouds encircle the mountain waist like a sash,
Stone steps mount high into the void where the narrow path leads far.
Alone, leaning on my rustic staff I gaze idly into the distance.
My longing for the notes of a flute is answered in the murmurings of the gorge".

Shen Zhou
(source: Laurence Sickman)

“Who can leap the world’s ties

And sit with me among the white clouds?”

Hanshan, tr. Gary Snyder.

“Late in my life I only care for quiet.

A million pressing tasks, I let them go.

I look at myself; I have no long range plans.

To go back to the forest is all I know…

            You ask – but I can say no more

About success or failure than the song

The fisherman sings, which comes to the deep shore.”

Wang Wei, tr. Vikram Seth.

Postcards from China, May, 1988, Maria on The Trans-Siberian Railway