<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=336763" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Song of an Old Cypress</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Before the Kongming Temple<br>lies an ancient cypress<br>With boughs of bronze<br>and roots of rock.<br>Its frosty skin rains down,<br>encircling the span of forty arms;<br>Its dark green leaves can reach<br>some two thousand feet of sky.<br>Ministers and rulers <br>had set a time to meet<br>And the trees they left behind, <br>the locals revered.<br>Clouds are coming now, bringing an air<br>that sits about the Witch's Gorge<br>While the moon sends a cold that passes <br>the mountain’s snowy white.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I recall in former times the path <br>around the Brocade Pavilion, to the east—<br>Lord Liu Bei and Kongming,<br>both enshrined, now reside in that hall.<br>On a lofty mountain, the trunks and <br>branches reach the ancient plains;<br>And there are paintings, sweet and graceful, <br>shown through the windows of an empty shrine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sinking, dropping, seizing land,<br>as though he holds the earth;<br>Tall, alone, among a sky<br>that’s vast and deep, with many winds.<br>A power sustaining him, <br>brilliant and divine,<br>Standing upright—a primal source—<br>a feat of Nature.<br>A great building will tilt<br>without its pillars and poles<br>But ten thousand pulling bulls can turn<br>their necks—for he is a heavy mountain.<br>He did not show his culture<br>yet has already startled the world;<br>And he cannot avoid being cut down,<br>but who will do it?<br>How can his bitter core escape<br>the crickets and ants?<br>A phoenix passes through<br>the sweet smelling leaves to rest.<br>Men of purpose and those withdrawn<br>do not complain—alas!<br>Since ancient times, those of great talent<br>have found it hard to be of use.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Du+Fu">Du Fu</a>, translated by Frank Watson<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=336763" data-title="Song of an Old Cypress de Du Fu" data-description="Before the Kongming Temple/lies an ancient cypress/With boughs of bronze/and roots of rock./Its frosty skin rains down,/encircling the span of forty arms;/Its dark green leaves can reach/some two thousand feet of sky./Ministers and rulers /had set..."></div> </div> </div>

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