Po Chü-i (A.D. 772-846) tr. Christopher Mulrooney after Waley
singing in the mountains


all men have their failings
mine is I'm a poet
I'm free of many bonds
but this one lingers still
when I see a landscape
when I meet a friend
I begin to sing verses
like one encountering a god
since being exiled to Hsün-yang
I go to the hills
when I've finished a poem
and climb to a peak
I lean on blanched stone
pull down a green branch
my singing startles the view
monkeys and birds watch me
I'm afraid I'm a laughingstock
elsewhere than away from people