Autumn Kessei 2017 Week 11

by tendo zenji

In reply to a Letter from Meng, Who’s
Gone Searching for His Old Village

After all that loss and ruin, I live at peace
far from Lo–yang summits, still unraveling

This question cloud-hidden peaks all pose.
I never leave these thorn-bramble depths—

north winds yellow leaves tumbling away,
southern streams old-age laments. Ten years

a guest of lakes and rivers — this mind all
lingering dusk grows boundless, boundless.

—Tu Fu (712-770)
translated by David Hinton in Mountain Home