One day I have met a spirit-like recluse

Who dwelt far away in the deep mountains

And whose skin was smooth as ice

And white as snow; his manners were

Elegant and delicate as that of a maiden.

He did not eat any of the grains,

But inhaled the wind and drank the dew;

He mounted on the storm clouds,

Drove along the flying dragons, rambling

And enjoying himself beyond the five

Sacred peaks and four great streams.

By concentration of his divine powers

He could save men from wholesale deaths

And secure every year a plentiful harvest.

That man, with those attributes of a wizard,

Though all things were nothing else

But one long mass of confusion and distress,

And he heard in that state the entire world

Crying out to him to be rectified,

Would not have to address himself arduously

To the mission, as if it was his condition,

To put things right and rectify the world.

Nothing could hurt that man: for a time

Of travelling the wilderness he comes across

No tigers or rhinoceroses on his way;

For, in him, a rhino would find no spot

To thrust its horn, nor a tiger a place

To lay its claws on; the greatest floods,

Reaching to the sky, could not drown him,

Nor would he feel the fervour of heats

Coming out from the crater of a volcano,

And scorching all the ground.

Do you know the reason why this is so?

Because, in him, there is no room

For the worldly things to pierce into.

How should such man be willing

To occupy himself with the mundane dealings!