Jingting Shan Hill (after Li Po)

Jingting Shan Hill (after Li Po)

Distant birds flying high
the lonely cloud and I drift
watching each other without end
until only the hill remains.

As always, I question my choices. Chinese-Poems.com offered this transliteration of Li Po’s timeless poem:

Crowd birds high fly utmost
Lonely cloud alone go idle
Mutual watch both not tire
Only be Jingting Shan

How to capture the concept of idleness and the meditative quality of the last line (not to mention the piece as a whole)? Ah, decisions, decisions…

Confession: The last line confounded me, so I set the poem aside for a couple of months. Just yesterday I pulled it out and immediately knew what to do. The power of patience…