With thanks to Lillian Stewart Carl for more than ordinary editing.
The title of this book comes from Robert Payne’s translation of a famous Li Po poem, variously titled “Conversation among the Mountains,” “Green Mountain,” “Question and Answer,” etc. The translation first appeared in Payne’s anthology of Chinese poetry, The White Pony, in 1947, and the third line reads, “The peach blossom follows the moving water”: an allusion to TaoYuan Ming’s even more famous prose tale of the peach blossom fountain whose waters led wanderers out of their world and time. I have been unable to get permission from Mr. Payne’s estate to quote the entire poem.