China and the West

Yeats, W.B. A vision : an explanation of life founded upon the writings of Giraluds and upon certain doctrines attributed to Kusta ben Luka. (London : Priv. print. for subscribers only by T. Werner Laurie, 1925). [Rev. ed. 1937].
http://books.google.ch/books?hl=de&id=lsHyAAAAMAAJ&q=chinese+poem#search_anchor.
"Mountains that shelter the bay from all but the south wind, bare brown branches of low vines and of tall trees blurring their outline as though with a soft mist; houses mirrored in an almost motionless sea ; a verandahed gable a couple of miles away bringing to mind some Chinese painting."
"When I spoke of a Chinese poem in which some old official described his coming retirement to a village inhabited by old men devoted to the classics, the air filled suddenly with the smell of violets, and that night some communicator explained that in such a place a man could escape those ‘knots’ of passion that prevent Unity of Being and must be expiated between lives or in another life."
"But Muses resemble women who creep out at night and give themselves to unknown sailors and return to talk of Chinese porcelain"