Clergyman's

My little children are playing at my side,
Learning to talk, they babble unformed sounds.
These things have made me happy again
And I forget my lost cap of office.
Distant, distant I gaze at the white clouds:
With a deep yearning I think of the Sages of Antiquity.
- Tao Yuanming

While you rested in the shade, I left you a while:
But till the end we shall be together.
Our joint existence is impermanent:
Sadly together we shall slip away.
That when the body decays Fame should also go
Is a thought unendurable, burning the heart.
Let us strive and labour while yet we may
To do some deed that men will praise.
- Tao Yuanming

At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!
- Tao Yuanming

At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!
- Tao Yuanming

At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!
- Tao Yuanming

In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.
I see the spring mead with its floating foam,
And wonder when to taste of it again.
The feast before me lavishly is spread,
My relatives and friends beside me cry.
I wish to speak but lips can shape no voice,
I wish to see but light has left my eye.
I slept of old within the lofty hall,
Amidst wild weeds to rest I now descend.
When once I pass beyond the city gate
I shall return to darkness without end.
- Tao Yuanming

Let me then remember, to calm my heart's distress,
That the Sages of old were often in like case.
- Tao Yuanming

Let me then remember, to calm my heart's distress,
That the Sages of old were often in like case.
- Tao Yuanming

Let me then remember, to calm my heart's distress,
That the Sages of old were often in like case.
- Tao Yuanming

Let us drink and enjoy together the wine you have brought:
For my course is set and cannot now be altered.
- Tao Yuanming