Hongri Yuan

My heaven is inside my body,
my heaven is a great many,
like stars in the night sky,
with silver towers,
huge edifices that look like sapphires,
golden palaces, gardens of crystal.
My body is bigger than the universe,
countless gods and angels are my partners,
as if they are countless myself.
Neither time nor life and death in my words,
dawn and dusk are the same names,
and sadness and joy are the same words.

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang)

The body is just a dress of your soul and the world is a picture of time.
You can’t find yourself even if you go all over the world,
because the temple of the soul is in a garden beyond time.
Those smiles of the prehistoric giants are in a bright mirror of the quiet spirit
and the interstellar words are a giant’s poem.

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang)

Though I might regret for myself when I turn to dust
As I bid goodbye to this world,
I know there exists in the scrapbook of heaven
A gorgeous image of mine that often smiles to me in dreams;
That my olden words are engraved on primeval stones,
Yes! The apocalypse from the gods of heaven and earth!
I shall then be a future giant, to have carved
The platinum city of giants in the future Kingdom of giants.

(Translated by Manu Mangattu)

Drape the night over my shoulders like a cloak of the world,
call the birds of the stars from outer space and fly near my city garden.
Sing a song of the giants from the huge city of platinum,
awaken the drowsy city of the world with a start.
Oh, the lightnings are in full bloom in the vault of heaven-
the hymns of the sweet soul.
Your bones became transparent suddenly,
their light was flickering all over the body like the wings,
in a flash, the body became huge, higher than the large building down the street.

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang)

The sunshine is mellow wine
and there are golden palaces inside the sun.
Where a giant is its master,
he told me that I was his shadow on the earth.

I will still be much greater, like a mountain,
each rock is a Potala Palace.
And the epics I chanted came from billions of years ago,
there are huge numbers of sweet homes beyond the Milky Way.

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang)

Tonight I thought of the platinum city above in distant space
Where there is no day and night and the giants are interstellar travelers by spaceship
Their words have the dignity of God and create the holy Kingdom
So that the picture of the soul in the maze of memory lasts a billion years
Standing by the azure sea near the great palace with swirling sweet music in the city of the gold
3.4.2017

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang)

Fifteen million years ago,
there was a civilization of gold on the earth.
The sun wrote the words of gold,
the moon wrote the words of silver;
all things on earth had its own language.
Where do the gods live now？
They have never disappeared,
they house still on the earth,
just you aren’t able to see them.

Translated by Yuanbing Zhang

As you start to seek your smiling soul in the realm of mystery
Learn you shall that the world is just a window;
That the kingdoms of soul are everywhere;
You will find the invisible kingdom of gold in the desert,
Hear the intoxicating nectar-like music from heaven
That death is but a Madadayo dance of smoke
To return to the starry outer paradise on heaven’s vault.

Translated by Yuanbing Zhang

Sometimes I see the sky smiling at me
The limpidity spirit and flower clouds
such as the old soul of mine
watch my shadow on the earth
The ground beneath my feet like a colossal ship
toward the Interstellar Kingdom
Those cities where giants dwell
blossom on the dustless Milky Way.

editors note: Let’s get to that place of smiles; this ship is wearing us down, we’re wearing it out… – mh clay

Each day is a dreamland;
Have you seen my golden palace in heaven?
Many an interstellar kingdom twinkles within that little room of stone.
The music of giants is honey for the soul, that gives you wings of light;
Yet you are surprised as if time had never passed,
When the one armored in diamond escorts you out of the world.

Translated by Manu Mangattu
Assistant Professor, Department of English
St George College Aruvithura, India