Historical Museum

Kejia Wang

One.
At the very beginning   only the band of a rocky moon
the cavern in an infinitely dark and cold memory

You were walking towards me with a smile
on that cool and clear morning       the floating clouds parting

If I should trace that path to welcome you
please let us settle in a land of lushness and bounty
I would pore over oracle bones to learn the secrets of augury
fire both love and faith into rainbow pottery 
adorned with water and cloud impressions

Back then       all the stories
had begun next to a long fragrant river
Wade through the stream       hibiscuses in bloom
the poem was simple       and the heart too

Two.
Rushed flight of geese       the seasons changing
Along the river I slowly seek towards the south
The hand that once engraved goddesses of mercy
has also meticulously carved out
a Sui Buddha’s tender stone lips

After the fragments spark and fly       it finally emerges
those dearest and most familiar contours of the heart
Within the gigantic, wet and cold grottoes
I am a modest and placid artist
life after life       mimicking trace after trace

Three.
But       where did we really go wrong
Why is that       through a thousand reincarnation rounds
I always barely miss that longed-for moment
Before the sands came       for you
I had once buried deep all the signs and evidence
After the sands came       why
would you always forget some serendipitous reach

A struggle of return        might as well in that moonlit night
pour you a cup of wine through rapidly blinking tears
Blast through the pipa       urge you to mount and ride
By now       what had been a bountiful land
has already entered myth       leaving behind only
withered willows and poplars       miles upon miles of desert dreams

Four.
To go is to return       almost
constant calls of the eventide in the shadowy night
between the breast an indecipherable gentleness
The spring that even rainbow silk threads cannot embroider
sinking farther and farther away       storm clouds gathering strength
My mottled heart
gliding ponderously between legend and faith

Five.
Reincarnating to meet you again
You live outside the cabinet       I already breathe within it
Separated by but a shard of cold glass
I earnestly wait for your arrival
Between error and disbelief       you capture their voices
of course you wouldn't ever believe
that every piece of samite and taffeta here
every painted man and earthen sculpture
every enclosed carved and engraved relief
are my love for you
my persevering unwavering immortal souls…

Six.
In the twilight you turn away in indifference       your steps fading
a lonely gallery       the deities falling silent
I finally become wood and stone       just as departed memory
outside the gallery       still a thousand florets of hibiscus

soft violet       gentle rose
and that snow-like paleness
mirroring an anonymous ancient likeness
slowly imbibing from the stream of time       slowly diminish