Wang Wei: Autumn Night Sitting Alone

Wang Wei: Autumn Night, Sitting Alone

秋 夜 独 坐

独 坐 悲 双 鬓
空 堂 欲 二 更。
雨 中 山 果 落
灯 下 草 虫 鸣。

白 发 终 难 变
黄 金 不 可 成 。
欲 知 除 老 病
惟 有 学 无 生。

Qiu Ye Du Zuo

Du zuo bei shuang bin
Kong tang yu er geng
Yu zhong shan guo luo
Deng xia cao chong ming

Bai fa zhong nan bian
Huang jin bu ke cheng
Yu zhi chu lao bing
Wei you xue wu sheng.

Autumn Night, Sitting Alone

Sitting alone, both temples white
Empty hall, almost midnight
Rain in the mountains, fruit falls down
Lamp light on the grass, insects sing

In the end, white hair difficult to change
Yellow gold not able to accomplish
Already know how to eliminate old age and illness
Only have to learn to remove the life-death distinctions

Notes:

Yellow gold: Can mean the yellow gold of money and/or refer to the Daoist alchemy practice of trying to create the gold immortality pills, taken by many emperors

Old age and illness: The Buddhist belief of trying to overcome the four obstacles: sheng 生 (birth), lao 老 (old age), bing 病 (illness), si 死 (death)