A MYRIAD OF COLORS FROM THE FARAWAY by Chen Yundong

A MYRIAD OF COLORS FROM THE FARAWAY

by Chen Yundong

Arriving at Delingha, the night is already quiet.

Darkness shrouds distant mountains and the Gobi Desert.

We recite poetry aloud in a halal noodle shop.

The drivers drink silently, swallowing down the day's itinerary,

faces weather-worn.

A blanket of snow in the forest covers the tracks of birds and beasts.

White breath falls from the eaves,

with lanterns hung on the wooden beam as the only red.

I came a long way to this snowy country, a place out of this world

that lights up the silent river in my body.

In the Mulan Weichang grassland, lakes descend from the sky.

This sky is vast, towering and blue, a desolate blue,

overlooking the flowers, wine, and the rolling greens.

I pass here.  The sun, the moon, the stars

pass here, people named the lakes after them.

On the way to Dunhuang, one meets the desert.

The ancient color of yellow stretches out before you,

dispelling all fears of the world.

We will distill a strong spirit from our blood vessels

to toast the grand moon, it is clear, presiding over heaven and earth.

I roamed a place larger than me, and always return to it,

to take home a myriad of colors, colossal colors

that will stay with me as my hair grows white,

and remind me of the secret of living

when I feel like a caged animal.

About the poet:

Chen Yundong was born in 1978 in Pingyang, Zhejiang Province. His works have appeared in Poetry Tide, Slope Poetry Journal, Wenzhou Literature, Pingyang Literature and Art and other publications, and have been included in anthologies such as Selected Contemporary Wenzhou Poems.