With tangled firs and pines the cave is hid.
Around the western hill a pathway creeps.
One lofty crag is outlined on the sky.
The temple towers are hung in airy deeps.
On dawn-flushed cliff reclines the Buddhas' home.
Mid masséd rocks high balconies appear.
To birds and monkeys Night lone silence brings.
The bell's deep booming chills the clouds with fear.
The peak's green shadow tints the lake-borne Moon.
The gorge-wind's song the torrent's music mars.
My soul expands above the realms of air
And hangs suspended with eternal stars.
The morrow's dawn yet other prospect brings.
I wake to see the eastern bounds long drawn.
Waves stir the oily surface of the lake
As o'er pale seas the darkness glows to morn.
The old Immnortals' traces still are here.
To us lies clear the Pathway they impressed.
And as my soul harks back to ages gone
I, darkly groping, feel them in my breast.