Transparent Men and Women

      

By Yuan Hongri translated by Wit Lee

Yuan Hongri   Transparent men and women Men and women more beautiful than colored butterflies Maybe really a group colored butterflies Dancing from Zhuangzi ‘s big dream   But I see cities, crystal transparent cities Like city’s dream, city’s love   Through the walls could reach the other shore Light, may transcend time Above the sea surface of time, boats of light are flying On a little island I see other men and women   This calendar tells us a window After days are still another days It is the illusion of days that besiege us Just as my flesh is my own shadow   Yesterday’s leafs and water drops Pebbles I played with in my childhood The sun I see for the first time Those all things are smiling in a house of light   Eyes of men and women Eyes more charming than the rainbow On vibrant morning In intoxicating dusk Flying water drowned men and women   I found one sun in my own chest I discovered cities in my head The water of the past turned into crystal, diamond There are stars sailing in my bones   Ah, a young girl in dream Maybe came from some day a hundred years ago Still I miss that moment That vision disappeared when I wake up   That momentary smile, how warm it was Who made you appear in my dream?   I believe in dream, as I believe in the sun And in dreamland I saw another me   Shadows of Phoenix and Unicorn Once in dream came down On the mountain top I dreamed a house of heaven   Blood is another river Blood in my body also has its own dream I set foot on a ladder of days But on the other mountain Leisurely I’m flying   Shadows of men and women Blooms in a smile The seasons of men and women Days are like pieces of stones   I opened an photo album sealed for many years I saw Yellow Emperor rambling in the city One shadow is among many shadows On another wild field Ancient years are shouting and fighting   On grassland all kinds of flowers are laughing Living in glass I Don’t know their names   Water of yearning, water of sweet and fragrant spring Fly from inside rocks A girl is like a colorful flying phoenix   Only dream tells us the illusory of time Outside time's gate There is another sun   Who was playing games inside ancient rocks Igniting gold piece by piece On pieces of transparent boulders Drawing seas and cities   I was sitting in a house filed with light With a picture album hold in my hand In the buildings of ancient times Caught sight of the future emperors   Who’s blood was the plum flower drinking Which girl’s song was it singing When I got up I saw a white jade, glittering its smile   In the age when rock drifted fragrance Queen Mother of the West was a witch Tow eyes have intoxicated the handsome and strong MU Tianzi   This is a gold sculpture But I don’t know Am I in times of heaven or mundane?   On days when Goddess stepped on auspicious clouds Where am I? On which star Still preserves my house of past?   Form east to west There is a road of gold Perhaps there is a blonde To be my companion of tomorrow   The earth is a crystal jade In lover’s mouth Atmosphere is as sweet as wines   And in one dreamland I'm still a baby   Every city and county I passed by Have all left my shadow Thousand years after they will still be golden and shining   Bread that I eat was my own blood A girl that I loved once loved me a thousand years ago   I saw in the arms of the rocks Girls were lying down, cheeks fresh and red Skins were as transparent as jade   Hieroglyphs and letters Were glittering and shining on the sun   God is holding a brush in his hand Waving a pen in heaven Those cities of gold and silver In an eye's twinkling flew toward the human world   On the edge of a big river bank There was one house of mine A garden yielded full of golden fruits   On the other mountain, red plum blossomed spreading the top My shadow turned into a Kylin   In the house built with white jade I wrote down a volume of poetry Each line of verse is a star in the blue sky   A tortuous, quite and secluded path Walked through from a garden The sun shed its golden drizzle   Golden spiral ladders Was in another crystal sky I opened my own head There are more suns Spinning ,singing   Girl of light, petal of smile On a lake green-jade-like Reflecting the red houses A cluster of green leaves transmit bright red lips   Smiling faces of the alley paved by stones To where shall it lead me? Blooming peach tree of early spring Upon the hillside ,bees of sunlight are buzzing   Through the street of trams and crowd In front of the glorious and magnificent mansions Look up forward a piece of crystal blue sky In the thoughts of white clouds Is the city beautiful? Along the street of billboards and neon lights Big trees covered with green hair Enable me miss the distant mountains and the clear springs   Children’s smiling faces are no unfamiliar Black jade eyes, pink lips At this moment, men and women flow stream endlessly It was fashion and vanity that noised the street   I planted myself here Left a thousand shadows To cultivate a thousand gardens To pave the gold onto road like the stones Let every stone melt into crystal   In wind language there were sounds of stars Rocks and pine trees of distant mountains Poetry rhythm of the sea There were underground buried dreaming words of ancient people, blooming red flower   And there were remote poems I eager to go back   Every single green tree beside the street loves us Under the hot sun, wordless green shade Every flower has its own language People with crystal eyes Will see flower's smile   Ah, every time the sun rises We all woke up from death The dead us,where have been kept?   Do not belittle a stone It hummed the song of universe   The young girl's smiling face of the very days   Turned into a white cloud Upon the mirror face of the sky All the saints could be seen   I was silent in the fire, went through   The flame of men and women In the high streets and back lanes of cities Wind of time blown colorful flags Under the blue sky, river of life is flouring and rushing   I tried to open the memory door On another planet Leisure and happy time The night of death subsided And on the red clouds of dawn Golden smile face of the sun   The initial men and women Men and women without names Men and women created God   The initial poets were a couple of lovers When the blood started to sing I heard the language of the sun and stars   On some wonderful and joyous occasions the sun smiled outside the window A young girl walked into your window Her eyes are two stars Came from ancient space   How transient this prosperity in front of us This street, city of labyrinth The old man sitting on the street playing with chess     Still missing the house of gone away   The young girl of that very year was still walking past the street Only turned into a transparent shadow Tomorrow is in white clouds' hometown Tomorrow’s sun is still smiling and silent   Every moment of mine is departing me Big birds of time were darting in the sky Brightly coloured feathers Glitter in the sky, knowing nowhere to leisurely fly down   In a palace I’m an old man, sitting on golden chair Missing me   I walked into a stone Saw another sky On a vast sea There was an island of peach flower   Days of riding a Phoenix Where are my companions Walking on the street of Wangfujing I miss the Yellow emperor riding a dragon up to the heaven   Light is my only food Light of the sun, moon, and stars Became my bones   Ancient Greek and Rome Is now in front of me Poems of Homer and Sappho Turned into my sweet spring   Many countries I travelled Flying in the space-time of words A thousand years and ten thousand years Made me lament: transience   And now every drop of blood today Is all a ruby Every inch of the land I've stepped on Is all ancient gold   Whose jade body am I walking on? Ancient sweet and beautiful songs Enables me fall in love with the ancient girl   In a transparent jade Will your laughter be preserved? Sometimes on one star I saw your beautiful face   Ah, golden words Stars of east and west How many poets’ kingdom they have entered?   Strings of shining glorious names Engraved on the chest of the sun Upon the ocean of the sky How many happy gardens are there?   I'm just fluttering away Making a temporary farewell from the mundane world for a millennium When Sappho returns again A new song must be chanted   Days of labyrinth in front of us Time played the strings of the sun and the moon Words flied from the stars   I walked into the days of phantom overlapped I can’t tell the past from the future Now I’m alone and unconventional And under the sun I lost the shadow   Is this body accompanied me The narrow boat of time? Above the waves of the Three Gorges I galloped forward   Understand the songs of green shade Drink a wine of silent time A golden daisy During my mid nap Turned into a girl   Poplars and willows on lake shore stand by each sides Are they still waiting The lovers strolling in the evening?   The sunset is waving a handkerchief of twilight The light of love Is soaring in the clean breeze   Pairs of star eyes Where are they twinkling today? On whose forehead they are inlaid Singing and chanting to me now?   I stepped across the gates of light Having no idea where to wake up from drunken sleep In the labyrinth weaved by the light Drink up the sweet wine of words to my heart’ content   Those golden smiling faces Come from east and west In the kingdom of poetry Bosom friends and partners everywhere abound    I lingered about in day times Opened doors and windows in the wall of light Had a sweet deep sleep in the white jade case Dreaming of my own footprints Radiating golden light in the sky   Loneliness became God Will loneliness hear the words of sky? Swim across the long river of shadow I’m a shadow forgetting himself   In a house by the street What kind of time there have been ? Every day on the earth Flame of time, burns endlessly   Let red lips of lovers fade Black hair run into dust Smell the fragrance of the mud Whose love do you think and recollect?   Everything is colorful and transparent Every stone keeps its own memory A pile of shattered stone statues Smile at me in the sun Maybe we'd known each other a thousand years ago   Blood of stone is golden and transparent Time flower is gold and precious stones Where are the charming figures today? Left rolls and volumes poetry of light behind Those shadows are still brilliant Vivid and bright-colored as ever in transparent words   A withered flower has a beautiful memory An instant bloom embraces eternity Memory walks to memory, where shall we go? The first drop of water turned into an ocean All things I witnessed come from the past Tomorrow will born in my palm By whom the chess pieces of the stars are driven? In whose eyes the earth is also a chess piece   I watched my own life on the earth Drinking water, having meals, heart full of yearning Another me perhaps always keep me accompany Only he knows my secrets Words I said may have been said Roads I traveled may have been traveled I seem to be repeating one by one the me of the past   On my tired days, eager for fall down and die Like zhuang Zi, became a free butterfly As soon as I wake up, I see the sun Auspicious clouds spread their fragrance beside me   Rivers flowed out from the embrace of the mountain Again back to the ancient sea My memory ocean maybe is just ahead                    Where is the time hidden exactly? Come with no sign and go with no trace Upon the mirror surface of time Only see my own shadow   My songs can be heard by the stars Walk on the city street White clouds walk with me   I walked into a church Caught a sight of Jesus holding a baby in his arms God stands in heaven,waits and watches us   My god is myself I sat in the heaven, looked at myself A big seven-colored bird Spread the wings of sky Watched me walking on the earth   Death' black night curtain Covered heaven of gold and silver At this moment where do I live on earth? Drink up all this glass of wine Blood of time is brewed into nectar   No time for hesitation and hovering Not to be sad in the face of heaven What cannot be retained is the shadow one after another My songs are a paradise that will not wither   Who is not hungry and thirsty in city desert? Colorful sand and gravel accumulated into time Flame refined out transparent bones Drink the bright jade body More brighter and glorious than diamonds   In pavilions of sky,read volumes of golden books In time and space labyrinth,write volumes of poetry   In the world of mortals, who is my bosom friend? Caress a street tree, listen to the whisper of the green leaves   Transparent crystal world, countless brilliant smiling faces Open the wall thus can walk into A house full of laughter   Tomorrow is just a landscape Long has been hanging in the balcony of sky The sun walked forth and back in the sky Made tomorrow’s lunch prepared   Let me sit down and caress the time’s silk Cut it to make you a new dress Walk into the bosom of the sun Through the flame And turn into a beam of pure light   Glass of the blue sky, melted in the flame You will see the young girl singing on the star Garden of earth blossom once again The human world is full of transparent butterflies flying all around   Labyrinth city, colorful river Wind blows flags of dream In whose blood the ancient song is sounded? The Hurrying footsteps beat the drum for an expedition   Those eyes glistering starry bright Seems contain ancient sweet spring A seed of gold Is sprouting on your palm, full of bloom   Beijing, August 1998       Bio of the author：Yuan Hongri (born 1962) is a renowned Chinese mystic, poet, and philosopher. His work has been published in the UK, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, and Nigeria; his poems have appeared in Poet's Espresso Review, Orbis, Tipton Poetry Journal, Harbinger Asylum, The Stray Branch, Acumen, Pinyon Review, Taj Mahal Review, Madswirl, Shot Glass Journal, Amethyst Review, Fine Lines, and other e-zines, anthologies, and journals. His best known works are“Platinum City”and “Golden Giant”. His works explore themes of prehistoric and future civilization.Its content is to show the solemnity,sacredness and greatness of human soul through the exploration of soul. Bio of the translator: Wit Lee, whose Chinese name is Li Hui, and pen name is Muzihuixin. She is a female poet born in Jining ,Shandong province, and now lives at the foot of Mountain Taishan. She is an editor of Taishan University Journal, a member of Taian Writer’s Association and Taian Poets’ Association. She has published many poems and one poetry book: Beyond Time   Email:3112362909@qq.com Hongri Yuan Phone:+86 15263747339 Address:No.18 middle school Yanzhou District ,Jining City, Shandong Province, China     Wit Lee