“The mind as though in the void,
The vitality as though of the rainbow,
Among the thousand-ell peaks of Wu,
Flying with the clouds, racing with the wind;
Drink of the spiritual, feed on force,
Store them for daily use, guard them in your heart,
Be like Him in His might,[25]
For this is to preserve your energy;
Be a peer of Heaven and Earth,
A co-worker in Divine transformation....
Seek to be full of these,
And hold fast to them alway.”
ix.—Embroideries.
“If the mind has wealth and rank,
One may make light of yellow gold.
Rich pleasures pall ere long,
Simple joys deepen ever.
A mist-cloud hanging on the river bank,
Pink almond-flowers along the bough,
A flower-girt cottage beneath the moon,
A painted bridge half seen in shadow,
A golden goblet brimming with wine,
A friend with his hand on the lute....
Take these and be content;
They will swell thy heart beneath thy robe.”
x.—The Natural.
“Stoop, and there it is;
Seek it not right and left.
All roads lead thither,—
One touch and you have spring![26]
As though coming upon opening flowers,
As though gazing upon the new year,
Verily I will not snatch it,
Forced, it will dwindle away.
I will be like the hermit on the hill,
Like duckweed gathered on the stream,[27]
And when emotions crowd upon me,
I will leave them to the harmonies of heaven.”
xi.—Set Free.
“Joying in flowers without let,
Breathing the empyrean,
Through Tao reverting to ether,
And there to be wildly free,
Wide-spreading as the wind of heaven,
Lofty as the peaks of ocean,
Filled with a spiritual strength,
All creation by my side,
Before me the sun, moon, and stars,
The phœnix following behind.
In the morning I whip up my leviathans
And wash my feet in Fusang.”[28]
xii.—Conservation.
“Without a word writ down,
All wit may be attained.
If words do not affect the speaker,
They seem inadequate to sorrow.[29]
Herein is the First Cause,
With which we sink or rise,
As wine in the strainer mounts high,
As cold turns back the season of flowers.
The wide-spreading dust-motes in the air,
The sudden spray-bubbles of ocean,
Shallow, deep, collected, scattered,—
You grasp ten thousand, and secure one.”
xiii.—Animal Spirits.