POETRY BY YUAN HONGRI

(Translated by Yuanbing Zhang and Wit Lee)

Yuan Hongri

THE TRANSLATORS

Yuan Hongri (b. 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, Pinyon Review, Taj Mahal Review, Madswirl, Shot Glass Journal, Amethyst Review, The Poetry Village, 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.

About the translators

Yuanbing Zhang (b. 1974) is Mr. Yuan Hongri’s assistant and translator. He himself is a Chinese poet and works in a Middle School, Yanzhou District, Jining City, Shandong Province, China. He can be contacted through his email-3112362909@qq.com.

Wit Lee (b.1981), whose Chinese name is Li Hui, is an editor, poetess and translator. She has published many poems on Deep Overstock, Harbinger Asylum, EL.Portal and created one poetry book titled Beyond Time.

THE BATH OF THE COOL BREEZE

Prehistoric words of the gods are waking up in my body
The platinum city from a strange planet is as if in a fantasy on the blue coast
The giant men and women who walk by the light do not know trouble or sorrow
There where the temple of the gods is in their heads, whose light is like wine flowing in the blood
And the music of the stars sways gently around them, which is like the bath of the cool breeze on the earth
The huge ship of stars which they have ridden can arrive at the other side of time
To let you get a glimpse yourself yesterday in the future and in the divine light of fragrance

THE AZURE SEA

Tonight I thought of the platinum city above in distant space
Where there is no day and night and the giants are interstellar travellers by spaceship
Their words have the dignity of God and create the holy Kingdoms
So that the pictures 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

STONE CITY

City of stone
Eyes of snake         
Whip of fire is the sun
While death, death of stone
Death of wind is howling along the streets
A girl woven with ivy
Is walking on the high wall of the city
Countless glass masks
Bones piled up with rocks
Under the sharp sword of time
Melt into a poisonous snake
A colorful rope is
Entangling the city
Water flows across amid the sky
The eyes of water illuminate the pallor of spring
Shadows flee one by one
City goes out of the city
While the ocean is coming quietly
Standing on the forehead of the sun
A girl burned the flowers red in her hands
Crystals emerge from the clouds
Another city, another spring, is smiling under the embrace of light
The rocks crumbled and the sand turned into scenery
Blue sky fell down from the up high
Drowned the river’s eyes
Blue snow, blue scenery
Walks over here from the horizon
Tall people, skin golden, shadows shining
Sitting in a silver carriage
I saw birds flying from the sky
Monster three million years ago
Returns on the wings of auspicious clouds
The shadow forest, with golden branches and leaves, stands above the city
The wind sings the song of feathers
Blue sea water and golden city
Set foot on their long lost home
The foam of bone disappears and hides in the desert
Water is the master of the world
And those who raise the cup of the sun
Is drinking the crystal sunshine and Silver Spring
On the shoulders of the sea and the city
On the wings of the wind, in the temple of water
On a bed woven with roses
In the streets of crystal and gems, in the eyes of the stars descending from the sky
Spread bright red wings and fly like clouds

ANOTHER ME FROM THE HEAVENS

If blue is namely white and black is namely red
and gold is transparent as crystal
and light makes the soul smile forgetting the sun moon and stars
and you were filled with wisdom, drunk for thousands of years
and back to the prehistoric giant city
and that giant is just like another me from the heavens
by the lotus throne in the golden palace.