University of Virginia Library

海客談瀛洲， 煙濤微茫信難求。
越人語天姥， 雲霓明滅或可睹。
天姥連天向天橫， 勢拔五嶽掩赤城；
天臺四萬八千丈， 對此欲倒東南傾。
我欲因之夢吳越， 一夜飛渡鏡湖月。
湖月照我影， 送我至剡溪；
謝公宿處今尚在， 淥水蕩漾清猿啼。
腳著謝公屐， 身登青雲梯。
半壁見海日， 空中聞天雞。
千巖萬壑路不定， 迷花倚石忽已暝。
熊咆龍吟殷巖泉， 慄深林兮驚層巔。
雲青青兮欲雨， 水澹澹兮生煙。
列缺霹靂， 邱巒崩摧，
洞天石扇， 訇然中開；
青冥浩蕩不見底， 日月照耀金銀臺。
霓為衣兮風為馬， 雲之君兮紛紛而來下；
虎鼓瑟兮鸞回車。 仙之人兮列如麻。
忽魂悸以魄動， 怳驚起而長嗟。
惟覺時之枕席， 失向來之煙霞。
世間行樂亦如此， 古來萬事東流水。
別君去兮何時還？ 且放白鹿青崖間。
須行即騎訪名山， 安能摧眉折腰事權貴，
使我不得開心顏？

A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,
Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;
But Yueh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,
Still seen through its varying deeps of cloud.
In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,
Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through China
With the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,
Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.
...My heart and my dreams are in Wu and Yueh
And they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.
And the moon lights my shadow
And me to Yan River --
With the hermitage of Xie still there
And the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.
I wear his pegged boots
Up a ladder of blue cloud,
Sunny ocean half-way,
Holy cock-crow in space,
Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road.
Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.
Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,
Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.
Clouds darken with darkness of rain,
Streams pale with pallor of mist.
The Gods of Thunder and Lightning
Shatter the whole range.
The stone gate breaks asunder
Venting in the pit of heaven,
An impenetrable shadow.
...But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,
And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,
Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,
With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers.
Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures.
I move, my soul goes flying,
I wake with a long sigh,
My pillow and my matting
Are the lost clouds I was in.
...And this is the way it always is with human joy:
Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.
And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.
...But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deer
And ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.
Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office
Who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!