6 Poems
I was born in the Northern desert;
A herdsman most of my life ‘til thirty;
Never saw what my face looked like.
Yesterday, a guest gave a Chinese mirror,
And I saw one hundred beautiful expressions.
A new courage was born in my heart;
Now, I’ll ask the Princess to marry.
The heavenly daughter from the deathless
city,
Half hidden, revealed from her white clouds;
If I overcome my fear, reach out with confidence,
We shall dance!
I could well have the elegant robes of a
monk
And well gain reverence from devotees
And have people praise me as a holy man
or saint,
But that would not satisfy the desires of
my beloved.
He never believed in a doctrine,
And is dismissed as a nonbeliever.
He never belonged to a race, and is dismissed
as a heretic.
He never confined himself to a culture,
And is ostracized from the human family.
A noise woke us up -
The black cat chasing a mouse -
My lover looked at me,
“Don’t be like that!”
I nodded my head three hundred times.
I saw tears from Buddha’s statue in the
temple,
I went home, found my talking parrot dead.
I prayed for something, nothing has been
answered.
I put my lover’s tears onto him,
He came to life once again.
So marvelous,
But remained silent after that,
Until yesterday, which was his funeral,
With one hundred good-looking ghosts.