Observations placeholder
Yu Xuanji - Free of all those hopes and fears
Identifier
015049
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Drunk means spiritually intoxicated
A description of the experience
FREE OF ALL THOSE HOPES AND FEARS
Nothing needs doing. I’m idle and free now,
wandering landscapes all wind-rinsed light,
river moon Boating among broken clouds,
boat unmoored and drifting some vast lake.
I play my ch’in in a Buddhist temple's quiet,
chant poems off an ancient general's tower,
or take thickets of flute-bamboo for friends
and flakes of chime-stone as kindred spirits.
Done chasing after silver-and-gold fortunes,
I make swallows and sparrows all my wealth,
till cups with the greens of springtime wine
and face moon in a window's dark mystery,
or circle a pool, depths clearing. A reflection
in water flowing thin, I take out my hairpins,
then lie in bed with books scattered around,
maybe rise half-drunk to comb out my hair.