Cloud Dreams of a Fleeting Life

Wild geese dance across the vast sky, while the Zen bell's toll sinks into sorrow.

Five lifetimes of mortal existence bind the strings of the jade zither; I hide away the melancholy of the road.

Plum blossoms fall in the snow, delicate orchids shed their petals.

A thousand years of spring and autumn drift away with the wind; I resent how briefly youth lingers.

I tread through seas of fire and inscribe words in icy caves.

Drunk, I sing of three thousand worldly affairs.

How laughable that fame and fortune turn to dust.

Better to burn incense and speak to myself,

then fish alone in a secluded valley,

at the farthest reaches of the Cloud Dream.

Life is lonely by nature, isn't it? How much hardship must we endure, how much splendor must we experience, before we understand that this is merely an elusive dream with no end in sight? He thought the best refuge for the heartbroken in this world was at the edge of the earth: drink a pot of rough wine and fish alone.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.