[updated October 2022]
Send As a Gift to Hermit Li This Long Line Poem: Four Sweet Tones
赠 李 处 士 长 句： 四 韵
玉 函 怪 牒 销 灵 篆
紫 洞 香 风 吹 碧 桃。
老 翁 四 目 牙 爪 利
掷 火 万 里 精 神 高。
霭 霭 祥 云 随 步 武
累 累 秋 冢 叹 蓬 蒿。
三 山 朝 去 应 非 久
姹 女 当 窗 绣 羽 袍。
Zeng Li Chu Shi Chang Ju: Si Yun
Yu han guai die shua ling zhuan
Zi dong xiang feng chui bi tao.
Lao weng si mu ya zhao li
Zhi huo wan li jing shen gao.
Ai ai xiang yun sui bu wu
Lei lei qiu zhong tan peng hao.
San shan zhao qu ying fei jiu
Cha nu dang chuang xiu yu pao.
Send As a Gift to Hermit Li This Long Line Poem: Four Sweet Tones
His jade letters of special documents locked in clever seals
Zi Dong with it’s fragrant breezes and bluish-green peaches.
This ancient man has four eyes, with teeth and fingernails long and sharp
Advanced spirit and consciousness can hurl fire thousands of miles.
Very misty and auspicious clouds follow him like marching soldiers
Very haggard autumn grasses unkempt with wormwood weeds.
I should quickly go back to enjoy the dawn at three Penglai mountain islands
Where beautiful women outside my window can embroider for me a feathered Daoist robe.
Notes:
Zi Dong: The place where reportedly Laozi composed the lines of the Dao De Jing.
Very haggard autumn grasses: This line refers to a story of a man who left his hometown and became an immortal. Wanting to return to his native place, he turned himself into a crane and flew back. His hometown people not recognizing him, shot their arrows his way.
Penglai: Mythological islands in the East China Sea. Home to the immortals, much like the Greek Mt. Olympus.