In My Lodge at Wang Chuan,(After a Long Rain.)

Portrait of Wang Wei
Wang Wei 699–761

The woods have stored the rain, and slow comes the smoke As rice is cooked on faggots and carried to the fields; Over the quiet marsh-land flies a white egret, And mango-birds are singing in the full summer trees.... I have learned to watch in peace the mountain morningglories, To eat split dewy sunflower-seeds under a bough of pine, To yield the post of honour to any boor at all.... Why should I frighten sea gulls, even with a thought?

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