In the autumn of last year I visited Lu Shan[6] for the first time.  Reaching a point between the Eastern Forest and Western Forest Temples, beneath the Incense-Burner Peak, I was enamoured by the unequalled prospect of cloud-girt waters and spray-clad rocks.  Unable to leave this place, I built a cottage here.  Before it stand ten tall pines and a thousand tapering bamboos.  With green creepers I fenced my garden; with white stones I made bridge and path.  Flowing waters encircle my home; flying spray falls between the eaves.  Red pomegranate and white lotus cluster on the steps of the pond.  All is after this pattern, though I cannot here name each delight.  Whenever I come here alone, I am moved to prolong my stay to ten days; for of the things that have all my life most pleased me, not one is missing.  So that not only do I forget to go back, but would gladly end my days here.  This is my third consolation.

Remembering that not having had news of me for so long, you might be in some anxiety with regard to me, I have hastened to set your mind at rest by recording these three consolations.  What else I have to tell shall be set out in due order, as follows....[7]

Wei-chih, Wei-chih!  The night I wrote this letter I was sitting at the mountain-window of my thatched hut.  I let my brush run as my hand willed and wrote at hazard as my thoughts came.  When I folded it and addressed it, I found that dawn had come.  I raised my head and saw only a few mountain-priests, some sitting, some sleeping.  I heard the mournful cries of mountain apes and the sad twitterings of valley birds.  O friend of all my life, parted from me by a thousand leagues, at such times as this “dim thoughts of the World"[8] creep upon me for a while; so, following my ancient custom, I send you these three couplets: 

    I remember how once I wrote you a letter sitting in the Palace at
        night,
    At the back of the Hall of Golden Bells, when dawn was coming in the
        sky. 
    This night I fold your letter—­in what place? 
    Sitting in a cottage on Lu Shan, by the light of a late lamp. 
    The caged bird and fettered ape are neither of them dead yet;
    In the world of men face to face will they ever meet again?

O Wei-chih, Wei-chih!  This night, this heart—­do you know them or not?  Lo-t`ien bows his head.

[1] Other name of Po Chuu-i.

[2] Other name of Yuuan Chen1.

[3] The extreme North and South of China.

[4] A poet, several of whose short poems are well-known.

[5] The son of Po Chuu-i`s uncle Po Ch`i-k`ang.

[6] A famous mountain near Kiu-kiang.

[7] What followed is omitted in the printed text.

[8] This expression is used by Yuuan Chen1 in a poem addressed to Po Chuu-i.  By “the World,” he means their life together at Court.

[34] HEARING THE EARLY ORIOLE

[Written in exile]