Lunar New Year Blessings

Tara C. Trapani

In honor of the start of the lunar new year this week, we offer an excerpt from Chinese poet, Hsieh Hui-Lien's masterpiece, “Snow Fu.”
 

…White feathers too are white
But lightness is their special nature.
White jade too is white
But stubbornly it guards the chaste hardness of its form.
Neither can match this snow
That comes into being and melts away with the season.
When the dark yin freezes, its purity stays unsullied,
But when the warm sun rises, it no longer strives to guard its virtue:

“Virtue–when was that my fame?
Purity–what concern of mine?”
Riding the clouds, I soar and descend,
Tagging the wind, I tumble and fall,
Taking on the form of things I encounter,
Assuming the shape of the land where I lie.
I'm white when that which I touch is so,
Grimy when surroundings stain me.
Free, my heart wanders far and wide;
What is there to fret over, what is there to plan?”

-Hsieh Hui-Lien (397-433)