GUI REN (C. LATE EIGHTH EARLY NINTH CENTURIES)

Gui Ren was a monk poet from the southern side of the Yangtze River and lived at the end of the Tang Dynasty. He resided in the Lingquan Temple in the Capital.
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Statement

Every day I agonize about poetry.
Who cares if it=s Spring or Autumn?
Whenever I=m happy with a couplet,
all things are free of sorrow.
Rain and petals fall on my steps;
Wind blows the bamboo towards my balcony.
My hair whitens whether I chant poems or not,
so let the head I have in this life go white.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping