Meditating in Moonlight (by Han Shan)

I first took note of this Han Shan poem thanks to a Twitter posting by @EstherHawdon.  What caught my eye was the first stanza, which struck me as unusual for Tang poetry, going beyond the typical Yin-Yang cosmology as a way of describing the workings of celestial light.  But as @EstherHawdon pointed out to me, the Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng (AD 78-139) had been a very early propounder of the theory that the moon borrows its light from the sun.

In any case, notable as the first stanza is, I find the second stanza even more remarkable -- Han Shan's own unique observations about indirect illumination - how the sun lights the moon and the moon itself provides illumination for the poet's own soul.

Meditating in front

Of a rocky cliff under the

Glow of the full moon

It's brilliant as day time

Everything casts a shadow

But without inherent light

The spirit is a vast void

Naturally clear

Emptiness contained

Such as in the depths

Of a mysterious cave

The same cause that makes

The moon visible makes

The moon a pivot on which

The heart's yearning turns