Towering cliffs were the home I chose bird trails beyond human tracks
What does my yard contain?
White clouds clinging to dark rocks
Every year I've lived here I've seen the seasons change
All you owners of tripods and bells, what good are empty names?
All you who read my poems guard your purity of heart
Let your greed be modesty
Your flattery be honesty
Put an end to evil karma
Trust your own true nature
Find your buddha body today
Do it as fast as an order!
The cold mountain road is strange - no tracks of cart or horse
Hard to recall which merging stream or tell which piled up ridge
A myriad plants weep with dew
The pines all sigh the same
Here where the trail disappears
Form asks shadow, Where to?
The mountains are so cold not just now but every year
Crowded ridges breathe in snow
Sunless forests breathe out mist
Nothing grows until grain ears
Leaves fall before autumn begins
A lost traveler here looks in vain for the sky
A fine young man on horseback waves his whip at the willows
He can't imagine death
He builds no boat or ladder
The seasonal flowers are lovely until the day they wither and fade
Rock sugar and clarified butter
mean nothing when you're dead
Before the cliffs I sat alone the moon shone in the sky
but where a thousand shapes appeared its lantern casts no light
The unobstructed spirit is clear the empty cave is a mystery
A finger showed me the moon
The moon is the hub of the mind
Give me a hidden eddy a residence free from dust and noise
Paths of newly trampled grass
Clouds above for neighbours
Birds to help me sing
No one asking for sermons
Springtime for this saha tree now a day lasts how many years?
Xuian-ju for his funeral let heaven and earth be my coffins
Whenever I reach that state
all I need is a shroud
Let my body feed flies
don't bother asking the cranes to mourn
I'd rather starve on Xiaoyang mountain for those who live honest death is fine too
The new year ends a year of sorrow spring finds everything fresh
mountain flowers laugh with green water
Cliff trees dance with blue mist
Bees and butterflies seem so happy
Birds and fishes look loveliest still the joy of companionship never ends
Who can sleep past dawn?
Calligraphy unrestrained, physique robust enough - alive a body with limits
dead a ghost with no name
it's been like this since ancient times
What else can you do?
Join me inside the clouds
I'll teach you magic mushroom songs
Pull your three winged galleons, ride your thousand wild stallions
you still won't reach my home
it's called the darkest wild
My cave is on a distant ridge
Clouds and thunder last all day
I'm not master Confucius
I have nothing to convey
Beneath high cliffs I live alone
Swirling clouds swirl all day
Inside my hut it might be dim but in my mind I hear no noise
I passed through a golden gate in a dream
My spirit returned when I crossed a stone bridge
I left behind what weighed me down
My dipper on a branch - click clack
Show me the person who doesn't die. Death remains impartial
I recall a towering man who is now a pile of dust
The world below knows no dawn
Plants enjoy another spring
Those who visit this sorrowful place the pine wind slays with grief
Spring water is pure in an emerald stream
Moonlight is white on cold mountain
Silence thoughts and the spirit becomes clear
Focus on emptiness and the world grows still