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Chinese Poems

The Old Temple among the Mountains

Charles Budd translation

BY CHANG WEN-CHANG

T'ang Dynasty (618-905 b.c.)

The temple courts with grasses rank abound, And birds throng in the forest trees around; But pilgrims few, though tablets still remain, Come to the shrine while revolutions reign. The mice climb through the curtains—full of holes, And thick dust overspreads the broidered stoles; The temple pool in gloomy blackness lies To which the sleeping dragon[37] sometimes hies.

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