Returning to My Cottage

Faraway bells echo in the valley

one by one the woodsmen are heading home.

White clouds at the summit still beckon me

but how dark and somber the mountain has become!

An evening breeze bends the water-rushes

catkin fluff flying everywhere.

Far to the east new grass greens the marshes

but here it is dusk. I go in and bar the door.

WANG WEI

(Trans. Taylor Stoehr)