Living

The Pleasures of a Simple Life with Nature

by Li Shang-yin AD 813–858

Translated by Charles Budd (1912) · From Chinese Poems (1912)

Living

On these pleasant hills residing,
Far from worldly din and strife,
Leisurely with nature living,
Here I pass a happy life.

Gently wave the bamboo copses,
Fanned by evening breezes light;
While the flowers and moon-beams mingle
In the ghostly hours of night.

Through ravines the waters gurgle,
Stemmed by scattered rock and stone;
Round the bends the footpath wanders--
By the mosses overgrown.

Here with friends and habits simple,
And a cup of generous wine,
Fingering lute and old songs singing--
For no other heaven I pine.

MLA

Shang-yin, Li. “The Pleasures of a Simple Life with Nature.” Translated by Charles Budd. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/li-shang-yin/2/.

Chicago

Shang-yin, Li. “The Pleasures of a Simple Life with Nature.” Translated by Charles Budd. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/li-shang-yin/2/.

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