Tracing the way back home here,
I might round North Mountain
on roads hung along cliffwalls,
timbers rising in switchbacks,
or I could take the watercourse
way winding and circling back,
level lakes broad and brimming,
crystalline depths clear and deep
beyond shorelines all lone grace
and long islands of lush brocade.
Gazing on and on in reverence
across realms so boundless away,
I come to the twin rivers that flow through together.
Two springs sharing one source,
they follow gorges and canyons
to merge at mountain headlands
and cascade on, scouring sand out and mounding dunes
below peaks that loom over islands swelling into hills,
whitewater carrying cliffs away in a tumble of rocks,
a marshy tangle of fallen trees glistening in the waves.
Following along the south bank that crosses out front,
the snaking north cliff that looms behind, I’m soon
lost in thick forests, the nature of dusk and dawn in full view,
and for bearings, I trust myself to the star-filled night skies.
Poem 36 by Hsien Ling-yun (385 – 433) a buddhist poet who loved mountains and streams
from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China
Translated by David Hinton
Thank you. Amazing painting.Sent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.