
Spring rain for days:
grass is green & thick;
the mud, soft & thin.

Spring rain for days:
grass is green & thick;
the mud, soft & thin.
Today, my office is chilly.
At once, I miss my mountain chum,
Who bound firewood in the valley,
Bringing it back to boil white stones.
I wish I could ladle some wine
To comfort on this stormy night.
But fallen leaves fill mountain hollows,
How could I find a track to follow?
This is poem #29 from the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首], entitled 寄全椒山中道士. The original poem in Simplified Chinese is:
今朝郡斋冷, 忽念山中客;
涧底束荆薪, 归来煮白石。
欲持一瓢酒, 远慰风雨夕。
落叶满空山, 何处寻行迹?

trunk ringed by fallen blooms,
only the pate contains hangers-on.

bright-fringed clouds
with blackened bellies drift:
summer day sundown.

shifting shadow
on sandy bottom betrays
illusory depth.

Autumn moon first glimpse
is impossibly huge;
the next, it shrank!

the temple might stand
a thousand years ago,
but for that city.

boats float the river;
balloons through the sky.
i float through time.