Guliransa (1820-1851)

WRITING POEMS

Writing my wrongheaded poems with a three inch bamboo pen
Is better than wearing away shoes and socks in running after fame
But how sad for all of you who haven’t tasted this,
Blunting my enthusiasm with your pointless words


SOMEONE BEAUTIFUL

Your look is like a peach flower of three springs;
Your scent is like grasses of nine autumns;
The black of your hair is blacker than all inks;
Can ever the truest red match the red of your lips?


A PAIR OF SCROLLS ON A STONE MONUMENT

When they say that truth is lie, all lies are true.
When they say that non-existence exists, the existence is non-existent, too.


The script of the blue candle

Worldly affairs are like children’s game
Why do people believe in them?
If you want to know the taste of this world, then taste the gall
If you want to grasp the nature of the many, look closely at the flowers then taste

Winter beauty

Fragments of gammadion on the window of morning
Have painted the faraway mountains in the white silver of the winter’s beauty
In the empty air without edges, ice particles dance
Blurring human traces on the dusty roads of this colored world


Translated and edited by Tsog Shagdarsuren and Simon Wickham Smith