STEADY RAIN, DRINKING ALONE

Life soon returns to nothing. The ancients

all said it circles away like this. And if

Sung and Ch’iao ever lived in this world

without dying, where are they now? Still,

my old neighbor swears his wine makes you

immortal, so I try a little. Soon, those

hundred feelings grow distant. Another cup,

and suddenly I’ve forgotten heaven. O,

how could heaven be anywhere but here?

Stay true to the actual, yielding to all things,

and in a moment, unearthly cloud-cranes

carrying immortals beyond all eight horizons

return. Since I first embraced solitude,

I’ve struggled through forty years. And yet,

in this body long since lost to change,

my thoughts remain, quite silent after all.