Classic Poem

L AO-TSE , what does he mean?
That heaven is, yet is not, seen?
A mountain is, yet is not, high?
A cloud, flying, does not fly?

What does he mean? What is life?
Wastes of illusion, sown with strife?
Faith, I know not! But for me
There 's a bridge, in the garden of Pu Li,
That makes, with its shadow in the water,
Willowy water blue with day,
A perfect circle — as with the daughter
Of Li, when I take her hand in mine,
Is made a circle so divine
That time and the world flow through it!

And only this, not withered lore,
Would Lao-tse have taught — no more,
Had he loved the daughter of Li!