The ancients gone, their voice and face are still;
Where in the vastness can we trace their will?
Look at the grass o'ergrowing Beimang's height,
Where bones and skeletons in mounds unite.
How can one bear this place at dusk's dim light,
A traveler grieved on journeys day and night?
We know love's bonds but stir the heart to pain,
Who knows our humble heads have turned to gray in vain?
Don't blame the world for lacking breadth and grace,
It's human hearts that narrowness embrace.
For fame and gain they rush like madmen blind,
Then by these very things, discord they find.
Greed for sound and lust for beauty, a constant craze,
In the end, by sights and sounds, they lose their ways.
Speak not of seventy years as rare and old,
The hardest now is not to reach half that, truth be told.
I hear in Penglai Palace fairies live at ease,
Unstained by worldly dust, from blemish free.
The sun and moon move slow, unlike short light's brief stay,
Three peaks stand fair, all in immortal array.
Maidenhair o'er rocks, yellow flowers spread,
How tall the magic grass and jade trees tread?
Peach Blossom Spring enjoys eternal spring,
Its radiant pool with waters truly blue does ring.
I'd take a raft to knock at golden gate,
But mighty waves and crimson tides still separate.
Returning to my fragrant hut, with whom to pair?
An old crane 'midst the pines, three or four are there.
Its cry to heaven stirs the colored clouds to fly,
And oft for me it spreads its wings on high.
Not yet to ride a phoenix, I'll take things slow,
With zither and books, contentment I shall know.
Let worldly splendors come before my view,
Alas, this heart of mine stays firm and true.
To bear gold and receive commands, who calls it glory?
Bowing my head, I can't escape the story.
Henceforth, worldly ways I'll forget, both you and I,
Smiling, I point to green hills where secluded paths lie.
Companions with a will to seek long life,
To fast and circulate qi brings no strife.
Know that the start lies in non-action's art,
Don't learn from fools who on acupuncture depend, apart.