A Monachal Cloud Poem by Jiang Haizhou

Freedom is farther away than far,
But just beside you.
--Sanyuan forewords


A Buddhist-becoming cloud that is stepping out in the morning
Is moving over the noon-napping villages and treetops;
A cloud that is gradually far away.

At the skyline of vast and lonely yellow sand,
A cloud is getting darker and darker of stepping forward;
Thinking is obscured to be the whole sky,
The cloud still runs true to form.

A cloud that on bended knees weeps itself into a rain forest
Because of seeing the end of the blue sea;
A finally confessional cloud--
Under the illumination of crescent
Understands that freedom is farther away than far
But just beside you.