One may live a century --
 Short span though it may be:
  Joys are bitterly brief
  And sorrows are many.
 You may take a wine jug
  On your wisteria rounds:
   See flowers grow to the eves
   As sparse rains wet the grounds.
 And when the wine is gone,
  One strolls with cane and croons.
   We become wizened with age;
   South Mount, fair through countless moons.

NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry (二十四诗品.) It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a crude translation of the twenty-third of the twenty-four poems. This poem’s Chinese title is 旷达, which has been translated as: “Illumed” [Giles,] “Big-hearted and Expansive [Barnstone and Ping,] “Expansive,” and “Open-minded.”