I am putting together a collection of poetry for publication this year. This lyrical poem will be included:
Out of an old seashell
Deep in the heart of a growing pearl,
Through the soft whirl
Of colour and unfolding space,
A tiny, crystalline speck is agitating spheres
Without fade or blemish.
And so would I, a little mind at large,
Devise mandala worlds of translucent perfection
Chang Mai, Thailand
Late 1960s
What I can’t decide is whether to leave it at that or, and this is the temptation, to add two little superscript numerals which link to these end notes:
[1] This poem was set to music and performed by Jack Tinapple and the Jigsaw Collective at Lee Point Coastal Reserve on August 20th, 2021. See https://vimeo.com/595049211. (Video recording credit: Eric Lede; Uploading that video to vimeo credit: Jack Tinapple.). The poem was also paired with the prelude from Bach Cello Suite at a musical event which Arafura Ensemble held at Audit House in Darwin in early May 2022.
[1] When translated into Chinese, this poem was rendered as follows in simplified characters:
深藏在越来越珍珠的心脏
通过软洄
颜色和展开的空间
一个微小的结晶斑点
被搅拌球不褪色或污点
等会我
有点头脑在逃
半透明的设计完美的曼荼罗世界
and in Pinyin:
Shēn cáng zài yuè lái yuè zhēnzhū de xīnzàng
Tōngguò ruǎn huí
Yánsè hé zhǎnkāi de kōngjiān
Yīgè wéixiǎo de jiéjīng bāndiǎn
Bèi jiǎobàn qiú bù tuìshǎi huò wūdiǎn
Děng huì wǒ
Yǒudiǎn tóunǎo zàitáo
Bàn tòumíng de shèjì wánměi de màn tú luō shìjiè
When I back-translated the Chinese version into English, the result was quite wondrous to behold. Although the first line, “Deep in the heart of a growing pearl”, was preserved, the central idea of the poem progressively lost itself in a bizarre, obscure wordscape, in which the evolving pearl became a “stirred ball” residing within the surrounding oyster’s “expanded color space” and the poet was pluralised into multiple identities.
All verbs and pronouns fell away at the end, leaving behind a terse, almost impenetrable summary of what had been wrought as a result of the “stirred ball’s activity; nothing other than Mandala translucent design the perfect world!
Here then is the quite venturesome and weird back-translation in full:
Deep in the heart of a growing pearl,
By soft whirl
And expanded color space,
A tiny speck crystallization
Was stirred ball,
[Which] does not fade or stain,
And so will I,
Little minds at large,
Mandala translucent design the perfect world
Yes, indeed. Still, perfect world is not a bad note for the back-translation to finish on!
Snippets 