Lines Composed at Shelter Eye Tower In Western Paradise
Buddha’s great unstinting heart
Lofty as this three-tiered tower
Provides mercy and shelter
And vision extending
A thousand lifetimes
Not by austerity alone
Does a person reach
The brilliant glowing realm
Bounded by Dharma
By the Holy Lotus River
By the Holy Lotus River
Where pure gold flows east
After bathing in its waters
The human body acquires
A supple glow
Changing from within
And upon ascending
To the far bank
Looks back to the western shore
At Buddha’s sacred grove
For many thousands of autumns
A Half-Finished Verse on the Mountain of Sacrifice
Composed In Western Paradise
After unstinting effort
Of the human frame
To reach this mountain shelter
Where a few words
Suddenly discovered
Exceed the poetic realm
In a holy sutra
Inscribed in stone
The spirit’s music is performed
In the half-empty mountain air
To the Temple of Novitiates Composed in Tai Yuan Near the Northern Capital
Climbing west to
The Temple of Novitiates
Gazing east towards
Yang Cheng where
The broad plain sparkles
Like a thousand flakes of gold
Along the pure route
Where the River Fen flows
On Climbing Mount Song Near the Southern Capital
A lonely peak
Tapers its way
To a summit
Cut off in the clouds
Thousands of feet above
With walking stick in hand
Climbing like a rattan vine
Gradually ascending
Finally arriving at
The moon’s side
In the very Temple of Heaven
Where only fleecy clouds
Are gathered to keep company
With two or three monks