A POEM BY CHINESE POET CH'I-WU CH'IEN

james a m whistler

           A BOAT IN SPRING ON JO-YA LAKE


Thoughtful elation has no end:

Onward I bear it to whatever come.

And my boat and I, before the evening breeze

Passing flowers, entering the lake,

Turn at nightfall toward the western valley,

Where I watch the south star over the mountain

And a mist that rises, hovering soft,

And the low moon slanting through the trees;

And I choose to put away from me every worldly matter

And only to be an old man with a fishing-pole.


                  ---- Ch'i-wu Ch'ien   (early 8th century)
                         tr by Witter Bynner





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