From the tomb of an unknown woman

Taken from a tomb on the Fu-Kiu mountain district of So-Chau in the

Province of Kiangsu. The date of the poem is many centuries old.

Mother of Pity, hear my prayer

That in the endless round of birth

No more may break my heart on earth,

Nor by the windless waters of the Blest

Weary of rest;

That drifting, drifting, I abide not anywhere.

Yet if by Karma's law I must

Resume this mantle of the dust

Grant me, I pray,

One dewdrop from thy willow spray,

And in the double lotus keep

My hidden heart asleep.