With time I become lazy about writing poems.
Now my only company is old age.
In an earlier life I was a poet, a mistake,
and my former body belonged to a painter.
I can’t abandon habits of that life
and sometimes am recognised by people of this world,
My name and pen name speak my former being
but about all this my heart is ignorant.
Wang Wei (701-761) tr. Tony and Willis Barnstone and Xu Haixin.
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A remarkable poem. So much in a few lines. A lovely picture too.
With time I seem to have more to do. There’s no time for lazy.
Leslie
Admirable woman, Leslie.
I never get board, Gert.