TEXT: Han Shan Poems for Dakini Mountain

 

1.

I sit on the mountain

no one knows.

Among white clouds

eternal perfect silence

 

2.

My life is grown from roots on Dakini Mountain,

on the stone cliffs, perched, heart breathing free.

At the end no scars ever leave traces.

 

3.

I’m settled here to watch this universe flow by.

Time’s light and shadows rise, a flutter of brilliance,

shining where my heart dwells.

Being, and nothingness, 

one dharma before me.

 

Here, sun and moon move like a river,

light and dark; just sparks from stone.

I surrender charge of all that changes, earth and sky.

I become the center

 

4.

There is no ferry on either shore

But though it is mighty hard to see the way,

Yet I will cross