Jia Dao 賈島
poet · Tang China · 779–843
A monk who returned to lay life and became a poet. The Chinese word for revising a text, "push-knock," comes from his agonising over whether a line should say push or knock.
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early 9th century
Two lines, three years in the getting. I chant them once and two streams of tears run down. If those who know my music do not care for them, I shall go home and lie down in the autumn of my old hills.
二句三年得，一吟雙淚流。
知音如不賞，歸臥故山秋。"Written After a Poem," in the Complete Tang Poems
early 9th century
Under the pines I asked the boy. He said, "The master has gone to gather herbs. He is somewhere on this mountain, but the clouds are deep and I do not know where."
松下問童子，言師採藥去。
只在此山中，雲深不知處。"Looking for a Hermit and Not Finding Him"
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