Dragon Well, formerly Dragon Well Temple, Hangzhou

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Master Biancai Retreating To Longjing

Su Shi 1036-1101 Once Master Biancai retired to Longjing, he never left it.  Once when I was there on a visit, we (traveled)all the way  to Fenghuang Peak. Startled, I looked around and  said:"Master Yuan has once again crossed the Dragon  Stream!" Biancai laughed and said:"Did not Du Zimei(Du fu) say:'I will grow old together with you, coming and going we  will be as carefree as the wind?'"And so we built a  pavilion on top of the peak, which we called "Crossing the  Stream" or (simply)"The Two Oldsters".Respectfully, I  composed a poem to harmonized with the rhymes of (a poem  by) Biancai. Sun and moon revolve like a pair of wheel hubs. Past and present speed by like a fox on a hill. There is nobody like this heron-thin old man; Austere and stern, he no longer know autumns. He himself doesn't care whether he goes or stays But man and heaven vie to keep him from leaving. He leaves like a dragon coming out of the mountains: The lightening and rain turn vast and mournful. He comes like a pearl reentering the river: Fish and turtles vie to greet him. This life must be viewed as a temporary sojourn; I have often suspected that fame was mere froth. I am not as daring as Official Tao: And the Master grieves for this guest from afar. Seeing me off back across the stream, The stream that should flow in the opposite direction. For now, I only ask that this Man of Mountain Remember how we two old men walked together today. A thousand kalpas rest in the palm of his hand, How could it be that he feels tha pain of parting?

Biàncái Lǎoshī Tuì Jū Lóngjǐng

Sū Shì 1036-1101 Biàncái Lǎoshī Tuì Jū Lóngjǐng，bú fù chū rù. Yú wǎng jiàn zhī. Cháng chū，zhì Fēnghuánglǐng. Zuǒyòu jīng yuē:"Yuǎngōng fù guò Hǔxī yǐ?" Biàncái xiào yuē:"Dù Zǐměi bù yún hū: Yǔ zǐ chéng èr lǎo，lái wǎng yì fēngliú." Yīn zuò tíng lǐng shàng，míng yuē Guòxī， yì yuē Èrlǎo，jǐn cì Biàncái yùn fù shī yì shǒu. Rì yuè zhuǎn shuāng gū， Gǔ jīn tóng yì qiū. Wéi cǐ hè gǔ lǎo， Lǐnrán bù zhī qiū. Qù zhù liǎng wú ài, Rén tiān zhēng wǎnliú. Qù rú lóng chū shān， Léiyǔ juàn tán qiū. Lái rú zhū huán pǔ， Yú biē zhēng pián tóu. Cǐ shēng zàn jì yù， Cháng kǒng míng shí fú. Wǒ bǐ Táo Lìng kuì， Shī wéi yuǎn gōng yōu. Sòng wǒ huán guò xī， Xīshuǐ dāng nìliú. Liáo shǐ cǐ shānrén， Yǒng jì èr lǎo yóu Dàqiān zài zhǎngwò， Níng zhōng bié lí yōu.

Translator:

Beata Grant

Notes: "While in Hangzhou, Su revisited some of the monks he had befriended years earlier. Huiqing, whom Su had sought out at Ouyang Xiu's recommendation when he first came to Hangzhou sixteen years earlier, was now dead, but Su composed a memorial piece for him, which was later inscribed on Mt. Gu, where the monk had lived. Su spent as much time as possible with Master Biancai, whom he had known for over twenty years and who was living in retirement at the Shoushengsi in Longjing. Biancai was now more than eighty years old but still extremely alert. Su wrote several poems to commemorate their meetings. As a poet, Su was not a theologian or a philosoper but a man of deep feeling and a profound love of nature, words, an friendship. It was through words and friendship and the poetic imagination that he sought to transcend barriers of time and space. The following poems addressed to Biancai shows once again his admiration for a man who had apparently done what Su would have liked to: transcend coming and going."--Beata Grant Finding: SSSC 5:1714-1716 From Beata Grant's Mount Lu Revised, Buddhism in the Life and Writings of Su Shih, University of Hawaii Press/Honolulu.

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