The Chinese wandering poet Hanshan, or Cold Mountain, wrote his poems on the rocks, trees and temple walls of the Tientai Mountains sometime in the 9th century CE.  For more about this extraordinary figure, see this earlier post.  In the Buddhist tradition, a person who becomes a monk or nun is said to ‘have left home,’ and is therefore homeless. The ‘Three Realms’ referred to are : Desire, Form and Formlessness; the ‘Four Births’ are : birth by egg, by fetus, by moisture (worms and fishes, for example), and metamorphosis (for devas and the first beings of every world). Like the Chinese original, the translation is given without punctuation. The homeless people I know don’t practice the homeless profession you know when people are homeless their minds are pure and detached transparent without any secrets free and naturally so the Three Realms don’t affect them the Four Births don’t affect them without any plans or cares they wander forever content

Tr. Red Pine