RETURNING FROM TEMPLE OF GREAT AWAKENING By Zang Di

RETURNING FROM TEMPLE OF GREAT AWAKENING 

BY ZANG DI

Dusk, an unassuming ruin of the day,

an unprecedented break of

silence and presence in life’s routine;

halfway up the mountain, with the loveliest angle to look out and far,

it affords the view of every ridge and every trough,

but the softer transitions are well hidden, in space and in time;

there will be time when a human heart feels ethereal

and goes for the profound; then life flows instead of following impulses.

Still it will take a little extra something for the soul to transcend.

There, perhaps the horizonis more than just a portal;

Lend us the mountain's breeze, which brings with it relics of a distant past,

and bales out sorrows through a sieve, floating, far away.

About the poet:

Zang Di was born in Beijing in April 1964. He enrolled in the Chinese Department of Peking University in September 1983 and obtained a Doctor of Literature degree from Peking University in July 1997. He currently teaches at the Chinese Department of Peking University.

He has won the Pearl River International Poetry Festival Award (2007) and the "Chinese Literature Media Award · 2008 Poet of the Year" (2009). He was also selected as one of the "Top 10 Outstanding Young Poets in Contemporary China" (2005), "Top 10 Avant-Garde Poets in China (1979-2005)" (2006), "Top 10 Emerging Poetry Critics in China" (2007), and "Top 10 Emerging Poets in Contemporary China" (2007). His published poetry collections include Yanyuan Chronicles, The Universe Is Flat, Empty City Strategy, Wisdom Root Series, Little Elegy Series, The Rider and Soy Milk, and Necessary Angel Series.