A poem of Li Po – pg. 115 in the Penguin Classics edition of Li Po and Tu Fu, translated by Arthur Cooper. Cooper’s introduction and commentaries, incidentally, are some of the best I’ve ever read.
IN THE MOUNTAINS:
A REPLY TO THE VULGAR
They ask me where’s the sense
on jasper mountains?
I laugh and don’t reply,
in heart’s own quiet:
Peach petals float their streams
away in secret
To other skies and earths
than those of mortals
Extracts 