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Magazine Parting WordsCulture

Taking a Morning Walk Alone to the Pond North of the Yuhsi After It Rained

By Liu Tsung-yuan

Spring 2022

Sandbars free of overnight clouds

village walls lit by the morning sun

a pristine pond encircled by trees

last night’s rain scattered by the wind

happy having nothing to do

my mind becomes one with all this

♦

From Written in Exile: The Poetry of Liu Tsung-yuan, translated by Red Pine. Copyright © 2019 by Red Pine. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.

Liu Tsung-yuan (773-819) was a Chinese poet and prose writer of the T’ang dynasty.