Close eyes, see with the heart

What eyes behold may not be truth

Flowers are flowers, mist is mist

Flowers are not flowers, mist is not mist.

Wang Guojun

Wang Guojun, pen name Chike, is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He perseveres in exploring truth, goodness and beauty of human nature through words, building the backbone of poetry with authentic voice. His writing covers novels, poems and prose. He persists in lonely, conscientious free writing. His poetry collection Poetic Rain over the South of Yangtze River was published by China Theatre Press in 2013.

王国骏，笔名迟客，浙江杭州人。执著于文字中人性的真与善美，以真实的声音堆砌诗骨。涉猎小说、诗歌、散文，坚持孤独的有良知的自由写作。出版诗集《江南诗雨》（中国戏剧出版社，2013）

Translated by Ma Yongbo

Listening to the Wind in the Mountain Temple

Close eyes, see with the heart

What eyes behold may not be truth

Flowers are flowers, mist is mist

Flowers are not flowers, mist is not mist.

 

Before mountains and waters return to themselves

to the world I appear layered behind masks

The world I see is phantasmagoric surface

 

The awakened one says: tadpoles are frogs

Then says: tadpoles are merely tadpoles

Then says: frogs are tadpoles, and fertilized eggs

Three in one. Interconnected

 

The wise pure one says: frogs are frogs, eggs are eggs

Tadpoles are tadpoles; three in one

Interconnected

 

I fold my palms beneath pine boughs and attain full awakening

Mountains are still mountains, waters still waters.

 

Buddha sends the departed toward new birth with evening drumbeats

With pine wind, I dance in vast heaven in perfect freedom.

山寺听风

闭着眼睛，用心去看

眼睛看到的，未必属于真实

花是花，雾是雾

花非花，雾非雾

 

在山水归于山水之前

世界看到的我，面具层覆

我看到的世界，表象诡谲

 

空悟者解曰：蝌蚪是蛙

又解曰：蝌蚪才是蝌蚪

复解曰：蛙就是蝌蚪，就是受精卵

三位一体。通连

 

智净者解曰：蛙就是蛙，卵就是卵

蝌蚪就是蝌蚪，三位一体

通连

 

我合什于松下，得正大觉

看山还是山，看水还是水

 

佛以暮鼓，送亡人往新生

我以松风，昊天舞大自在

_____

Fixed Orbit

Midsummer. Dusk on the fishing river

on this day, lack of warrant becomes trivial

cicadas sing: I know, I know

either starve, or be full

this transforming human shape must learn wickedness

as sparrows are forced to fix their gaze on farmlands

as cicadas instinctively suck sap from trees

 

For instance, every snowflake bears original sin

every gust of wind plays an ignoble part in avalanches

cicadas sing: I know, I know

then a azure-winged magpie, predator to the core, descends abruptly

 

A peregrine falcon, maker of a higher order

one minute after the magpie silences the cicada’s song

ends the magpie’s life with sharp beak and talons

more cicadas chant in chorus: I know, I know

 

I, this human form with nowhere to turn

step into the beast’s gaping maw

I reach out to trace its sharp fangs and smile bitterly

beyond love for life and reverence for being

I hold little fear of death, nor much wish to interpret it

特定轨道

夏半。捕鱼江上黄昏

此日，无证已经属于次要

蝉在唱：知了，知了

要么饿着，要么饱腹

正在蜕变的人形，必须学坏

像麻雀被迫把目光投向农田

像蝉本能地吸食树木的汁液

 

譬如，每一片雪花存在原罪

每一缕风，都在雪崩中扮演不光彩的角色

蝉在唱：知了，知了

而一只灰喜鹊以掠食者的实质，骤临

 

一只游隼，更高的秩序制定者

在灰喜鹊结束蝉唱以后的某一分钟

以尖喙和利爪结束后者的鸟生

更多的蝉，合唱：知了，知了

 

无路可投的人形之我

走进野兽洞开的嘴巴

伸手摸了一遍尖利的獠牙，苦笑

除了对生活的热爱，和生命的敬畏

对死亡并无过多的恐惧，或解读

_____

Light

To hear the wind and watch mist above the clouds

free from all fetters: abiding in cloud yet not cloud,

in mountain yet not mountain, in water yet not water

 

Karmic hindrances melt away, all obsessions cast aside

one tastes truth in plainness, finds clarity in stillness

to be in mountain, in water, in cloud —

to abide yet not cling, and thus to be everywhere

 

Above the clouds, sutra chants, invocations of the Buddha

kasaya robes, the golden glow of temple spires

I may be a bodhisattva, or an earthen idol

I may arise, may cease, may become nothing at all

 

No striving. Rest where fate places me, forget favour and disgrace

as ten thousand weights dissolve into a grain, seas and mountains thin to a thread

I rest above the clouds, lighter than wind, lighter than mist

lighter than two ounces of worldly sorrow, three maces of bitter medicine

轻

云上听风，看烟

无挂碍而在云非云，在山非山，在水非水

 

诸多业障销，万般痴念舍

得淡而味真，得静而空明

在山，在水，在云，在而不在则无处不在

 

云上，有经声，佛号

有袈裟，有寺庙的金光

而我可以为菩萨，可以为泥胎

可以生，可以灭，可以无一物

 

不争。随遇而安，宠辱两忘

譬犹万斤遁于克，海山缕如丝

我在云上，轻于风，轻于烟

轻于人间二两闲愁，三钱苦药

________________

Read: Short Songs – Poetry from China