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My little children are playing at my side,
Learning to talk, they babble unformed sounds.
These things have made me happy again
And I forget my lost cap of office.
Distant, distant I gaze at the white clouds:
With a deep yearning I think of the Sages of Antiquity.

— Tao Yuanming

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Notes from Wikiquote

Translated by Arthur Waley

More quotes by Tao Yuanming

God can only set in motion:
He cannot control the things he has made.

At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!

I would gladly wander in Paradise,
But it is far away and there is no road.

I beg you listen to this advice —
When you get wine, be sure to drink it.

The pure air
is cleansed of lingering lees
And mysteriously,
Heaven's realms are high.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tao Yuanming (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.