er loneliness?
Stiff and stark my body cleaves to the earth;
Unimpeded my soul yields to Change.[2]
So has it been for four hateful years,
Through one thousand and three hundred nights!

[1] Yen Hui told Confucius that he had acquired the "art of sitting and
forgetting." Asked what that meant, Yen Hui replied, "I have learnt to
discard my body and obliterate my intelligence; to abandon matter and be
impervious to sense-perception. By this method I become one with the
All-Pervading."--_Chuang Tzu_, chap. vi.

[2] "Change" is the principle of endless mutation which governs the
Universe.

[26] THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN THE EASTERN GARDEN

[_A.D. 812_]

The days of my youth left me long ago;
And now in their turn dwindle my years of prime.
With what thoughts of sadness and loneliness
I walk again in this cold, deserted place!
In the midst of the garden long I stand alone;
The sunshine, faint; the wind and dew chill.
The autumn lettuce is tangled and turned to seed;
The fair trees are blighted and withered away.
All that is left are a few chrysanthemum-flowers
That have newly opened beneath the wattled fence.
I had brought wine and meant to fill my cup,
When the sight of these made me stay my hand.
I remember, when I was young,
How easily my mood changed from sad to gay.
If I saw wine, no matter at what season,
Before I drank it, my heart was already glad.
But now that age comes,
A moment of joy is harder and harder to get.
And always I fear that when I am quite old
The strongest liquor will leave me comfortless.
Therefore I ask you, late chrysanthemum-flower
At this sad season why do you bloom alone?
Though well I know that it was not for my sake,
Taught by you, for a while I will open my face.

[27] POEMS IN DEPRESSION, AT WEI VILLAGE

[_A.D. 812_]

[1]

I hug my pillow and do not speak a word;
In my empty room no sound stirs.
Who knows that, all day a-bed,
I am not ill and am not even asleep?

[2]

Turned to jade are the boy's rosy cheeks;
To his sick temples the frost of winter clings....
Do not wonder that my body sinks to decay;
Though my limbs are old, my heart is older yet.

[28] TO HIS BROTHER HSING-CHIEN, WHO WAS SERVING IN TUNG-CH`UAN

[_A.D. 815_]

Sullen, sullen, my brows are ever kn