The Pleasures of a Simple Life With Nature

By Li-Shang-Yin

T’ang Dynasty

On these pleasant hills residing,
Far from worldly din and strife,
Leisurely with nature living,
Here I pass a happy life.

Gently wave the bamboo copses,
Fanned by evening breezes light;
While the flowers and moon-beams mingle
In the ghostly hours of night.

Through ravines the waters gurgle,
Stemmed by scattered rock and stone;
Round the bends the footpath wanders—
By the mosses overgrown.

Here with friends and habits simple,
And a cup of generous wine,
Fingering lute and old songs singing—
For no other heaven I pine.