Who is sitting in the heavens and staring at me?

Who is sitting in the golden palace of tomorrow?

Who is smiling?

 

Golden staff in his hand

flashes a dazzling light.

Ah, the flashes of lightning-

interweave over my head...

 

I walked into the crystalline corridor of the time-

I want to open

the doors of gold.

Lines of words in the sun-

Singing to me in the sky-

I want to find

the volumes of gold poems

on the shores of the new century

to build the city of gold.

  

Laozi with rosy cheek and white hair-

Smiles at me in the clouds,

A phoenix dances trippingly

and carries with it, a book of gold.

 

Lines of mysterious words

made my eyes drunken,

countless giant figures

came towards me from the clouds.

 

Ages through seventy million years

emerged leisurely before my eyes,

the cities of gold

surrounded with crystalline gardens.

 

A sky of sapphire

sent out a colorful miraculous brightness,

onto green hills of jasper,

dragons and phoenixes were flying

 

Exquisite pagoda-

with majestical palace of gold,

the airy pavilions and pagodas

stood within the purple-red clouds

 

Laughing girls

riding the colorful husbands and wives,

propitious clouds

sprinkling the colorful flowers.

 

I opened the door to a golden palace,

saw the rows of scrolls of gold,

a giant who had the haloes all over his body-

there was a golden sun over his head.

 

Smiling, he picked up the books of gold

recited the sacred verses-

Intoxicated with the miraculous wonderful words

I was enveloped with purple-gold flames.

 

A golden lotus

bloomed beneath my feet,

lifted up my body,

wafting it up out of the golden palace

 

The red clouds

drifted by my side,

in the far distance I saw

another golden paradise

the leisurely bells

calling to me.

 

There- countless giants

roamed in a golden garden,

with skies of ruby,

rounds of sun

like the golden lotus

blooming in the sky,

 

(An excerpt from a long poem)

 

Translated  from Chinese by Yuanbing zhang