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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=373362" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Ballad Of The Old Cypress</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">In front of the temple of Chu-ko Liang there is an old cypress. Its branches<br>are like green bronze; its roots like rocks; around its great girth of forty<br>spans its rimy bark withstands the washing of the rain. Its jet-colored top<br>rises two thousand feet to greet the sky. Prince and statesman have long since<br>paid their debt to time; but the tree continues to be cherished among men. When<br>the clouds come, continuous vapors link it with the mists of the long Wu<br>Gorge; and when the moon appears, the cypress tree shares the chill of the<br>Snowy Mountains' whiteness.<br>I remember a year or so ago, where the road wound east round my Brocade<br>River pavilion, the First Ruler and Chu-ko Liang shared the same shrine. There,<br>too, were towering cypresses, on the ancient plain outside the city. The paint-<br>work of the temple's dark interior gleamed dully through derelict doors and<br>windows. But this cypress here, though it holds its ground well, clinging with<br>wide-encompassing, snake-like hold, yet, because of its lonely height rising<br>into the gloom of the sky, meets much of the wind's fierce blast. Nothing but<br>the power of Divine Providence could have kept it standing for so long; its<br>straightness must be the work of the Creator himself! If a great hall had<br>collapsed and beams for it were needed, ten thousand oxen might turn their<br>heads inquiringly to look at such a mountain of a load. But it is already<br>marvel enough to astonish the world, without any need to undergo a craftsman's<br>embellishing. It has never refused the axe: there is simply no one who could<br>carry it away if it were felled. Its bitter heart has not escaped the ants; but<br>there are always phoenixes roosting in its scented leaves. Men of ambition, and<br>you who dwell unseen, do not cry out in despair! From of old the really great<br>has never been found a use for.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Another Translation:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In front of K'ung-ming Shrine<br>stands an old cypress,<br>With branches like green bronze<br>and roots like granite;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Its hoary bark, far round,<br>glistens with raindrops,<br>And blueblack hues, high up,<br>blend in with Heaven's:<br>Long ago Statesman, King<br>kept Time's appointment,<br>But still this standing tree has men's devotion;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">United with the mists<br>of ghostly gorges,<br>Through which the moon brings cold<br>from snowy mountains.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">(I recall near my hut<br>on Brocade River<br>Another Shrine is shared by<br>King and Statesman</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On civil, ancient plains<br>with stately cypress:<br>The paint there now is dim,<br>windows shutterless. . .)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wide, wide though writhing roots<br>maintain its station,<br>Far, far in lonely heights,<br>many's the tempest</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When its hold is the strength<br>of Divine Wisdom<br>And straightness by the work of the Creator. . .</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet if a crumbling Hall<br>needed a rooftree, Yoked herds would, turning heads,<br>balk at this mountain:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By art still unexposed all have admired it;<br>But axe though not refused,<br>who could transport it?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">How can its bitter core deny ants lodging,<br>All the while scented boughs<br>give Phoenix housing?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh, ambitious unknowns,<br>sigh no more sadly:<br>Using timber as big<br>was never easy!</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><div class=q>
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<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=373362" data-title="Ballad Of The Old Cypress de Du Fu" data-description="In front of the temple of Chu-ko Liang there is an old cypress. Its branches
are like green bronze; its roots like rocks; around its great girth of forty
spans its rimy bark withstands the washing of the rain. Its jet-colored top
rises two thousan..."></div>
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