We may be the mythic ones

The Wang River collection (8)

Scholar Tree Avenue 
Wang Wei

Deep shade from palace scholar trees is falling 
On moss that's grown thick on the narrow trail. 
But just in case a mountain monk comes calling, 
A gateman sweeps the entrance, without fail. 

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Pei Di's poem at the same site (prose translation):

The scholar tree avenue from this gate, is the road to Lake Qi. In the late winter there is a lot of rain, and as the sun sets, no one is returning home.

Wang Wei uses the growth of moss to tell us that no one passes this way. The gateman sweeping the entrance (presumably to a temple) is probably doing it for the owner of the estate - Wang himself. But Wang likes to imagine he does it out of pious fear that some holy man might wander out of the hills at any moment. In fact, Wang and Pei are the superior beings who arrive unannounced.

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宫槐陌

仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔。

应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来。