In the temple amid storms, I met you,
By the balcony, I heard you several times.
It was that time of spring,
The cherry blossoms bloom, foretelling its youth.

Oblivious, for I follow the path of ascetic,
The Ten thousand things began to dull in your presence.
Cold, and desolate, my heart has long hardened,
Loving too deep, sadness is too much.

The flowers that fall only left the vibrant river flowing downstream until the end of summer.
The beauty of nature, are of the past;
Inebriate, Indulging in little of what was left;
Our meeting, witness by the heaven above, and earth below,
This moment, can it last forever?

Life is a dream, very difficult to keep for a long time.
Taking the willow branch when I miss you at the temple;
Love sick is such a wine jar.

Lean on the balcony to feel the love melancholy;
My back is turned, only to remind me of your departure.
After getting drunk, when the dream is still there, you have long left.
Sleepless all night to miss someone faraway,
The quiet autumn has long passed;
I still await your returns.

The world isn’t peaceful, chaos and order;
like water and oil.
There are a lot of wrinkles on the face.
Outside the temple, cold white speckles rested effortlessly;
My breath has long drawn and hoarse.
The people dine with their loved ones;
Alone in this temple, I recall the dreams once again...

In the temple amid storms, I met you,
By the balcony, I heard you several times.
It was that time of spring,
The cherry blossoms bloom, foretelling its youth.

Oblivious, for I follow the path of ascetic,
The Ten thousand things dulled in your presence.
The beauty of nature, are of the past;
Inebriate, Indulging in little of what was left;
Our meeting, witness by the heaven above, and earth below,
Can it last forever?

The fruit of love, bitter shell yet sweet flesh;
One can’t help but take a bite.
The ground is hard, and cold;
Our meeting was ephemeral.

Outside, the storm is not kind,
Alone in this temple, no trace of your existence remained;
Was it just a dream?
The flowers have long withered,
River frozen, no longer flowing downstream.
Was winter always this dreary?
Gazing at the spot you once sat;
Time flicker like dying embers.

Before long, the cherry blossom bloom once again;
Yet the bud in my heart remained unmoved.
The blossoming flower, river flowing downstream amid spring;
Above, the firmament was clear.

Turning my back to see the returning sparrows;
Your figures were nowhere to be seen.
Intoxicated, Indulging in little of what was left,
My dream has long withered.

My knees kneeled at the gate of the temple as the countless nights passed;
Oblivious as my memories slowly disassembled.
Your promise of that summer, I can no longer recall,
The words you once murmur are now faint, and incoherent.
The heaven pitied, but cannot interfere;
The earth comforts but cannot disobey in fear.

Love is a dream, very difficult to keep for a long time,
Once gone, cannot be returned.
There are a lot of wrinkles on the face,
Opposite of the vibrant forest laying before my eyes.
My breath has long-drawn, immemorial moment unfamiliar to the self;
I still await your returns, alone in this temple...

Tides rise and fall, the moon up and down,
sun waking west and east,
Heaven and earth.
Aloof, not that the world is beneath me,
The heart yearn for freedom,
Therefore spirit became he.
Man yearn for the sky, but can only daze on earth.
Therefore, Sky became their heaven,
Beneath became their Earth,
and Man became... its witness.

Heart burdened, the river turns.
The bed is unmoving, curtain remains closed.
Autumn leaf dance, sun hidden, moon peek;
What is it that heaven seeks?
Tomorrow, I head to Chang’an,
Tonight, I take a sip of wine.
Sun rested, cold wind echoes;
My wine cup has shattered…
Tonight, I can’t take a sip of wine.
My mind drift far between rivers;
Dazzling among the night sky;
I find my heart unable to rest.
Sun has now dawn, my body is feeble;
Withered like ashen embers;
Today, I can’t head to Chang’an.
In the end, Man proposes and Heaven disposes.

Looking at the past, sorry is...
I seek not apology, nor forgiveness,
but silence.
To be born with no purpose,
is to be born without a meaning in life.
No purpose, no reason, no excuse,
as such, I live without regret.

What is meaning?
To be born with no purpose,
is to be born without a meaning in life.
Therefore, without purpose and meaning,
is without reasons.
How can there be excuse without reason?
That's why your purpose is to find meaning in a life,
a life that has no meaning.
perhaps that’s what makes life unknowingly so meaningful.

I can let go of my memory,
but not my sorrow.
I can let go of my past,
but not my mistakes.
Mistakes are made,
stakes are created,
Fixing my mistakes,
or lower the stakes?

Human greatest fear, is the unknown.
To not know, or unknown, is to not grasp.
Humans fear what they cannot control.
Death, is human greatest fear.

Under heaven, no mortal can resist death.
A king would be overthrown;
An emperor would rot;
The world extinguish;
The stars dim;
Such is death!

Death, tiny yet holds an endless profound mystery.
It cannot be held, cannot be touched, cannot be seen.
The dead cannot speak;
The living cannot see.
How could the living see the dead that cannot speak?

Death is the mother of life.
Close, yet so distant;
For deaths give birth to life;
Life, then give birth to death.

Death is the cause, life is effect.
Life is cause, death is effect;
Causality, difficult to grasp.

Mortal, who bears the spirit of the living;
cannot grasp deaths.
Mortal, who bears the spirit of the dead;
cannot grasp life.

Heaven lent you a soul, Earth will lend a grave;
All debt is paid without seeking to repay.
The samsara of life and death,
Who can escape?

The soul, are to return to heaven;
The body, are to return to earth;
Who can resist?
The evil is dreaded by men but not heaven;
Evil and right, no different in its eyes.

Opening the window, I watch the bird depart
With a heart.
They say distant heart tend towards like places,
Yet my heart drifts with no traces of paces.
When the heart drifts,
So does the spirits.
Travelling a thousand miles,
I hope it finds its replies.

Living carefree, unrestrained,
That is my heart dao.
To live so freely, transcend reincarnation,
one must overcome life.
Whom to where my eyes stride,
See trillions upon trillions of mortal heart dao.
The road is endless, so is my heart.
If the heaven wield, then earth pave.
If the world shielded, then my heart pierce.
The ocean is many, the many is one.
The dao is many, the many is one.
The heart is many, many is one,
Greed, Love, Hatred, Jealously,
desires stem from the heart.
The myriad things are dao,
ultimately the many whence one.

The mountain is hard to climb, river shifted,
I have no trickle or mote of strength.
I see that now the window's bright again.
Besides the road, cloudy mist feed into blossom,
Each petal further adding one more to spring.
My sigh mourn in snow dust,
Yearning, my writing continue to spread.

Crossing the eastern stream,
I met a friend.
His shell, hard as he slowly
traverse across the water.
Crouching down, I asked him.
Oh turtle, why do you move so slow,
Yet never stop inching forward?

The song of eastern river from afar.
Once again, time has come to visit.
Like the thread that you hold,
time weaves and unfold.
While my memories is still strong,
I recite this old song.
Life is cut and stilled in the midst of time,
with moments engraved in heart,
I sing this song in time.

When the heart move,
the world does too.
Closing my eyes,
Is the world still here?
Closing the world eyes,
Am I still there?
Open eyes is truth,
Closed eyes is false.
Is my eyes truth,
Or is the world's eyes false?

Swift was dusk, reminding people how time flies by quickly before one realized.
Their world was separated,
two boundaries that could never met,
as was fated by heaven itself.

Slip from the crack of the boundary,
The two illusionary figures collide.
Stretching across the land,
White flakes cover every nook and cranny,
Their figures were like two magnets attracted toward one another.

She knew of his name that was covered in blood.
He had walked a path filled with corpses,
the murderer who slaughtered millions with his sword.
Looking at him from a distance, she laughed.
Nothing was needed to be said,
for words were meaningless to the both of them than the look they gave to each other.

The country is broken, though hills and rivers remain,
In the city in spring, the grass and trees are thick.
Chaos, like oil mixing with water, order is not to be anchored.
Enemy, are many;
Peace is few.
In this world, my enemy is numerous as clouds,
Are you willing to accompany my path?

Her smile was the blooming spring that would be coming.
Somehow, she had always believed in him.
He would never fail her.
If he walked the path filled with obstacles, then she would accompany him!

Alone in the northern lands,
The two of them burrow their feet in the earth,
Hands held gently against one another as they faced each other.
A tranquil solemnity befalls on the place,
as all of nature was to witness the soon unity of the couple,
Far from the turmoil of the world.

First, Prayer to the heaven and earth present to witness their love.
As if signifying their presence,
The earth shook, the clouds cleared.
Their heads held high, and their gaze locked onto each other.

A bow to Heaven and Earth,
This bow is as surreal as a dream.
First thanking Heaven for bestowing conformity upon the two of us,
Allowing me to meet you among billions of people,
Till white-haired yet never parted.

A bow to Heaven and Earth,
Kneeling love and hate into dust,
Before kowtowing the earth, permitting a place of quietude for the both of us.
let us imagine the world hatred as congratulatory,
In the end, neither of us owning the other anything,
This life, this moment,
There are only the twos of us.

And the final bow to Heaven and Earth,
the last to represent that they would stick through thick and thin,
a bow to each other,
Immemorial promises to remind each other that they are one yet not, alone yet together.
Their conviviality was sent as a prayer to Heaven and Earth,
coveting their thoughts for peace,
And may it last forever more, under the eternal heaven.

If not this life,
In the next life,
May we meet again.

In Autumn river, my thought drift and came.
The people are flaky as withered leaf,
their fickleness that put my past to shame.
A once vibrant pears is now not so green.
Name lost in time, face forgotten;
the person is now foreign.

People say I'm a rock.
Sitting here, I wait, not knowing who.
My heart ached, like ink drop in water.
The rain glow over eastern gate,
defeaning the sorrowful people.
Downed in solitary,
the muffle cannot shatter my loneliness.

At times, the road is murky,
colorless as ancient paintings.
Road is far, a character dotting alone,
not the first nor last.
Perhaps... My hometown is still there,
waiting for my return after this walk in life.
Too far... Too far...

Skipping stones along spring river,
One, two, three — finally touching lone pavilion.
Beneath my feet lie petite sprinkle of flowers.
Clear willow branch brushing against my shoulder,
the clouds shriek, heaven downpour, earth sorrow,
man can no longer borrow.
Our wine-cup has long grown old,
promise has long been sold.
On my last breath,
I skip these stones, where our promise last postponed.

Without past, without intervention,
it is spectating.
Memories are few,
present is new,
none can see, and none can hear,
the role of a spectator.
To see yet not do,
to hear yet not say,
spectator are lonely beings.

A leaf drifting thousand miles,
against the wind, it live.
A mountain stood arrogantly,
against the withering time, it live.
Therefore, those who persist are alive,
the dead dare not struggle.
Struggling is life, persisting is life,
but life is not struggling or persisting.

Quietly, I've waited here so long,
Day after day; but now I must return.
Food is cold, so is winter,
When will you return?

I see that now the window's bright again,
Sun has dawn, food is hot,
But you are naught.

Tears of moon…
A single drop to poison the ocean,
Alluring charms that drown many men.
Why must you veil yourself
Behind clouds?
Laying here with opened window,
The clouds swayed.
A pity, your words are too far away.

In our lifespan, by the time we truly understand,
Understand what we are living for,
We are already old.
‘Spring’ represents ‘Youth’,
As the four season change,
Time flows quickly as well.
Our memories are faint like a river of stars,
My longing is as clear as the moon in the sky.
Autumn has knocked my door once again,
I continue to weave green thread,
Forming a spiral.
Engraved there my memories,
Autumn has taken it elsewhere.
Where I stood has turn pale,
‘Winter’ represents ‘Wither’.
I began to plant last year flower,
Outsider are crossed-eye,
While I alone tend to the flower til summer.

A sitting sparrow on old willow branch,
the raindrop reflect my thought like moon upon lake.
The heart stir thousands thought.
Man is witness to heaven and earth,
his spirit bellowed in-between.
Where the heart tilt, heaven shift.
Where the heart waver, earth tremble.
So small... so this is my will.
Reflecting in my heart, the ripple is the will.
Insignificant and short-live;
but a single will to move the world.

Drunk, I rise and approach the moon in the lake,
There was a peony.
Amidst a solitary night, bound by sorrow,
I Inquire the peony.
For whom do you shed your petals and leaves,
for whom do you bloom?

There are love, just not together.
Life and death come abruptly, what a pity.
We are passerby between mountain and river;
We live and we die, nothing more.

Spring blossom as old willow rejuvenate.
Our cup of wine has wilt since last autumn,
leaving behind only dried wine-cup.
Old feathered red moon grazed past fog,
I sat by the cold dreary stone.
Like last summer, I held a wine-cup in hand.
Kneeled, a splatter of bitter taste splash your grave,
I still remember our vow last autumn.
The two cup were filled last autumn,
this spring, I can only pour one.

One step… Two steps… Three steps....
So small, yet I feel lost.

Standing still, my feet moved one step backward;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

Chasing you, I took the 2nd step;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

Going back one… Going back two…
Fixing my steps, I took the 3rd step forward;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

...

Three steps… Two steps… one step…
So small, yet I feel lost.

Standing still, my feet moved one step forward;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

Chasing you, I took the 2nd step;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

Going back one… Going back two…
Fixing my steps, I took the 3rd step backward;
Why?
Your silhouette was standing here;
Where have you gone?

You've brought a lonely soul;
passing time with a ghost;
The rising dawn remain the same,
but the person doesn't.
Three thousand glistening lanterns,
listening to pray from low to high;
Wishing for wealth,
Wishing for success,
Wishing for health,
Wishing for recess,
Til the end of time, I wish only you.

Every day, every week, every month, every year;
I try to hold the time in my hands.
But like a mote of dust, they slip through my finger,
reminding me that time will always expand.
Each day, I try to stay true to myself
But my reflection keeps on changing.
Each second I try to live without future in mind,
But my past forever sing me old songs.
I know even my own song will fade away,
like the people who spread rumor,
But until that time come, I continue to lay;
lay down in life oblivious to my future;
in the end, this old song continue to spin through my life.

Time is an adventure.
It carries us regardless of our willingness.
The past is  memory,
present is memory.
Future?
I stopped, then continued,
The future is the untold story.

Standing by the gate to admire green grass view,
I saw a traveler passing by.
Not knowing where she came from,
Her question startled my heart.
Answering my doubt,
She handed me a wine jar.
Not looking at her departing back,
I smiled and took a gulp.
Today, I made a friend.

To live is to experience tribulation.
How can there be rainbow without rain?
To live is to experience mortal dusts.
How can there be rain without water?
To live is to experience life's rust.
How can there be rust without metal?
To live is to achieve happiness.
How can there be happiness without sad things?

Truth and lies, I once distinguish the two.
Reality is truth, but why...
Because Reality is constant;
Time is truth, because it is constant,
constant because they cannot be change.
Understandable, some cannot accept the truth,
accept reality, why?
Because they cannot change the constant.
People will root toward earth,
Love will attract one another,
Sad will follow happiness,
these are all constant, what we call truth.
Lies is just another constant,
a constant that does not match their own,
therefore, people label lies away from truth.

Waiting at the crossroad,
I’ve met countless travelers.
Shaking my head from disappointment,
They could not answer my question.
— What is a rock?

I saw a monk stopped by.
He had heard of my question before,
so he gave me an answer.
Rock is karma.
I asked him to explain,
but he smiled and left.

Rock is cause, and effect!
An amusing traveler answered with a smile.
Letting out a chuckle, I asked how so?
Reaching his hand for a rock from the street,
He rolled, it stopped after a moment.
He looked at me in the eyes, then walked away.
It was then, I understood.
Exerting force upon it, causes it to roll.
Where it lands, is effects…
Sowing a seed incurs cause.
Returning next summer, a sprout took its place.
⁠— this is effect.

Here is quiet, breezy cold air,
life is one dazzling snare.
Where snow orchid blossom,
I find cool summer, warm winter;
but greatness never come sooner...
My back disobey, the wind is too cold.
My ear speaks, the peak alone.
I wanted to be great, to be dazzling,
must my heart make a killing?

My heart, roofless, it searches for the spirit.
Whisper of birds in the silent Valley,
Songs of the moonlight bloom,
There I find tranquility.
Drifting thousands leaf,
I see what other not see.
Dwelling hundreds rest,
Other see what I not see.

Why?
Sitting by my desk, I asked.
Intoxicated by unwillingness,
there was bitter down my cold body.
On the desk, there was a petal,
there was no telling where it came from.

Wine, a drink to some, a comfort for others.
The mind is drunk, yet the heart is not.
It’s a source of medicine to forget one's sorrows for a long while,
Yet to many, a poison to numb the heart.
Recalling the melodic song looming over nightfall breeze,
My sorrow slowly eased.