MOON OVER MOUNTAIN PASS
The birds have vanished into the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
-Li Po (701 – 762) China
The poem as translated above I found in Czeslaw Milosz’s collection, Luminous Things, but there is at least one more translation, which goes like this:
MOON OVER MOUNTAIN PASS
All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other –
Only the mountain and I.
-Li Po
Which do you like better?
Gladsome Lights 
A beautiful poem and gloriously illustrated!
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Hi GJ! I love the second translation and I love that painting. xo
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I can’t decide which translation I prefer. If forced to decide I’d say the first.
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I like the first better, I think. I like that it evokes the time that passes and that which remains through time more than the second.
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I see what you mean, and I like that aspect of it, too! Thank you, Katja.
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