- Yuan Hongdao
" [Jade-Green Bamboo Hall Collection] .
POEMS
THE CAPITAL
Bright are the city walls of the capital;
Red-robed officials shout on broad streets.
There is a white-headed destitute scholar;
Hanging from his mule's saddle, sheaves of poems.
Clasping his calling card, he knocks on doors for work;
The gate keepers smirk at one another.
Ten try and ten fail;
Walk the streets, his face is haggard.
Always fear in serving the rich;
Sorry your flattery isn't quick enough.
Over an eye a black eyepatch;
Half blind, the fellow is old!
A STRANGE PRIEST
Bought his mantle to escape draft and taxes;
Now he's the head priest amid his splendor.
Recites incantations, but sounds like a bird;
Writes Sanscrit that looks like twisted weeds.
With his begging bowl he distributes food of the spirit;
On his seat he faces the lamp of Buddha;
If you don't devote you whole body and soul,
How can there be anywhere Buddhism at all?
BOOKS
Chaves, Jonathan trans. "Pilgrim of the Clouds", New York-Tokyo, 1978; new edition Buffalo New York: White Pine Press, 2005.
ARTICLES
Carpenter, Bruce E. 'The Gentleman of Stones: Yüan Hung-tao', "Tezukayama University Review"(Tezukayama Daigaku ronshu), Nara, Japan, no. 24, 1979. ISSN 0385-7743
External links
* [http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/collection/mao_xiang.html oberlin.edu/mao_xiang]
* [http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/yuanhd.html renditions.org/yuanhd]
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