Retirement at Zhongnan, Wang Wei (300 Tang Shi #123)

In middle age, I followed the Buddhist Way—
In evening years, I dwell beside South Mountain.
When the desire comes, I set out alone—
What pleases me, only I can know.
I go down to the water, stopping there,
Then sit and gaze upon the rising clouds.
I sometimes meet an elder in the woods—
We chat and smile—it’s not yet time to go.

终南别业
中岁颇好道，
晚家南山陲。
兴来美独往，
胜事空自知。
行到水穷处，
坐看云起时。
偶然值林叟，
谈笑无还期。

Wangchuan Estate is right next to South Mountain in the Zhongnan Mountains, if that wasn’t clear. Idiom: the Buddhist Way is literally the “good way.” Added in translation: years, to clarify the metaphor (more faithful would be “in my evening,” but that’s clunky), and the final to go—the usual understanding is that it’s time to return home, but given clear the extended sense of “evening,” this line also reads to me as having an more universal meaning.

—L.