"The three-sided box", Chang Ch'ien
Self's enlightening morning strut, severed as fast as the eye can blink;
bounced softly onto unfamiliar ground, crimson grass like wounded fur.
Hastily viewing owns surroundings, frightened and invigorated at the sight;
the trees bending out of shape, the sky glowing with alien and indescribable colours.
Like a dream world, something out of Jum sum's myths;
reality suffering or rejoicing in this flux?
Beauty like that of thorns sliding across a woman's naked body,
but not piercing or arousing the skin.
A place of marvels, a wonderous nightmare worth sleeping through;
this mirage of unlife wasted by a beast's rude arrival.
The sight of a statue tall demon jumping from each falling leaf to the next,
screaming, roaring without a sound.
But fortune has its ways with those close to the honoured,
for no man nor ghost can disobey the force of the empire's craft.
Thus, standing tall, facing another world's mighty unconformity;
I trapped the demon inside my three-sided box.