like an unanchored boat

I laugh at my failing strength in old age, 

yet still dote on pines and crags, to wander there in solitude. 

How I regret that in all these past years until today, 

I’ve let things run their course like an unanchored boat. 

[Shide {fl. 9th century}, 'I laugh at my failing strength in old age', trans. by James Hargett, from Zen Poems in Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets]