Huanggang

The Great River flows east, its waves washing away all heroic figures across millennia. West of the ancient ramparts, men say, lies the Red Cliff of Master Zhou of the Three Kingdoms. With feather fan and silk cap, amid chatting and laughing, masts and oars dissolved into smoke and ashes.

Bamboo staff and straw sandals are lighter than horses—who fears? A straw cloak in misty rain suffices for a whole life. Looking back at the bleak storm-beaten place, returning home: there is neither wind and rain, nor fair sunshine.

Lodging like mayflies between heaven and earth, tiny as a single grain in the vast ocean. Lamenting the transience of our brief life, envying the unending flow of the Great Yangtze. Only the clear breeze over the river and the bright moon among mountains: when ear hears it, it becomes sound; when eye meets it, it becomes color. Taking without prohibition, using without exhaustion—this is the boundless inexhaustible treasury of the Creator.

The river surged with audible currents, the sheer bluffs rose a thousand feet; the mountains loomed high beneath a diminutive moon, and as the waters receded, jagged rocks emerged. How brief the passage of days and months, yet the landscape is transformed beyond recognition!

When a scholar lives in this world, if he lacks inner peace, wherever he goes will bring distress; but if his heart is tranquil and free from external harm, wherever he turns will bring supreme joy.

What night is without a moon? What place is without bamboo and cypress? Only idle men like the two of us are rare.

A broken halberd buried in the sand, its iron unconsumed; washed and polished, it reveals an ancient dynasty. Had the east wind not favored Master Zhou, spring in the Bronze Sparrow Tower would have locked away the Two Qiaos.

A crescent moon hangs from sparse paulownia boughs; the water clock has run out, all people fell silent. Who sees the secluded recluse pacing alone, a misty, solitary wild swan shadow? Picking through all cold branches refusing to roost, resting alone on cold, lonely sandbars.