Translation by Charles Budd
The old temple among the mountains
Language: English  after the Chinese (中文)
The temple courts with grasses rank abound, And birds throng in the forest trees around! But pilgrims few, though tablets still remain, Come to the shrine while revolutions reign. The mice climb through the curtains full of holes, And thick dust overspreads the 'broidered stoles; The temple pool in gloomy blackness lies, To which the sleeping dragon sometimes hies.
Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Chang Wen-Chang [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884 - 1920), "The old temple among the mountains", op. 10 no. 3 (1916), published 1917 [voice and piano], from Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan / Five Poems of the Ancient Far East, no. 3. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-08-23
Line count: 8
Word count: 59