sunday poesy

by layman k

from Four Verses
            by Chang Yang-hao

Before forty I quit my job
and came to tread the way of saints and sages.
If I come out, it’s just because
I love the hills and streams.
My ears are clean…
My vision’s ample…
When you ponder it,
this is true happiness
The golden girdle girds calamity.
Purple robe robes pain.
Are they better than my briar cane and cap of straw?

(from The Shambhala Anthology of Chinese Poetry translated by J.P Seaton)