Staying Overnight with Abbot Zan
Du Fu



Cane tin how come here
Autumn wind already sough
Rain waste deep court chrysanthemum
Frost topple half pool lotus
Banish rather against nature
Void not leave Chan
Mutual meet can night stay
Gansu moon toward man round
How did your tin-edged cane get here?
The autumn wind's already sighing.
The rain's laid waste the inner court's chrysanthemums,
And frost has felled half the pond's lotuses.
Banished, you don't renounce your nature,
In limbo, you don't depart from Chan.
Now we've met, we can spend a night together,
The Gansu moon shines round upon us.
View Chinese text in traditional characters.

Other Chinese poems about Autumn.

Note: Chan is the original, Chinese, form of Zen Buddhism. Gansu is the province of north-western China to which Abbot Zan had been exiled.