When the Heart is Remote (T'ao Yuan-ming)

Another great poem from T'ao Yuan-ming ...

Building my house

On the outskirts of town

Yet no noisy traffic bothers me

You wonder how this can be

When the heart is remote

The world leans the same way

When picking mums

Along the eastern fence

I gaze up at the eastern ranges

At my leisure

Day and night

The mountain air so clear

And when the birds fly

Home in their flock

In their midst

I see a true ideal

Though in expressing it

Words fail me

结庐在人境

而无车马喧

问君何能尔

心远地自偏

采菊东篱下

悠然见南山

山气日夕佳

飞鸟相与还

此中有真意

欲辨已忘言

This verse is part of a longer series of poems called Drinking Wine.  But I think it stands on its own quite beautifully.  The way T'ao describes his hut on the outskirts of town reminds me a bit of my own backyard, just a few blocks from a major roadway, and yet now, when the garden is in full bloom, it feels a world removed.  And I just love that couplet - when the heart is remote/the world leans the same way.