The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan
Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt
Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century
9
A parrot who lived in the western country
was captured by a net in Wu and brought here.
A beautiful woman plays with it from morning to night,
going in and out of the courtyard of the women’s quarters.
She keeps it in a royal golden cage,
with a bar to the door that injured its wing.
Unlike a swan or a crane, it can’t
drift with the wind or soar away into the clouds.
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