Small Pavillion on slope of Lumenshan

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To Meng Haoren (3)

Li Bo 699-762 I love the Master, Meng Haoren, A free spirit          known the whole world through. In the flush of youth          he spurned the cap and carriage, And rests now         white-haired with age                 among clouds and pines. Drunk in moonlight         often "smitten by the sage," Or led astray by flowers          he does not serve his lord. The highest mountain...         how can I climb it? I can do no more          than kneel to his pure fragrance.

Zèng Mèng Hàorán (3)

Lǐ Bó 699-762 Wú ài Mèng Fūzǐ, Fēngliú Tiānxià wén. Hóng yán qì xiānmiān, Báishǒu wò sōng yún. Zuì yuè pín zhōng shèng, Mí huā bù shì jūn. Gāoshān ān kě yǎng, Tú cǐ yì qīngfēn.

Translator:

Stephen Owen

Notes: There are four translations of this poem on MopuntainSongs. the first by Dongpo in 2003, the second by Shigeyoshi Obata in 1922 in his seminal 'The Works of Li Po', the third by Stephen Owen in 1981 in 'The Great Age of Chinese Poetry', a must read!, and the fourth, again by Dongbo in January, 2006. 'Time Changes Everything', as the country song goes. And everybody's translation is his or her's alone.

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