The Buddha-Tower

The Buddha-Tower

After Ts’en Ts’an

I climb thy High Pagoda: clear
   And clearer round me glows the sky.
Comes sound nor song nor sorrow here.
   Hailing the White Sun drifting by,
      I take my refuge in thy Peace!

The great forests far and near,
   Wherethrough the wild beasts ravening hie,
   Spread their greenness ’neath mine eye
      To the world’s utmost rim, and cease.
   Thridding them through, the floods of Wei
      To a little silver rill decrease.

Low to me the hills appear
   Where the proud Kings of History lie.
E’en the South Mountain, rising sheer
   And holy, may not lift so high
His snows, as through my door to peer. . . .
   The clouds that over-float him by
      Far beneath me, fleece by fleece. . . .

L’Envoi:

Prince! if with eyes of sage or seer
      I had seen long since what high release
   Thou wrought’st for us who live and die
With thy pure Law, this many a year,
I had climbed thy High Pagoda here
      To find my refuge in thy Peace!

The Theosophical Path, March 1920