Duality Unending

 Burning words
 Burning speech
 Burning language
 Burning passion
 Burning fierce
 All feelings
 Burning with them, the heart
 Tell me, in what fire burns
 The forest in such a way?
  
 Weeping illusion
 Weeping body
 Weeping shadow
 Love weeps
 Weeping tenderness
 Only the silent coward crowd
 Laughs in cruel mockery.
  
 What do I see?
 Why do tears gather even
 In the eyes of the second mind?
 It teaches, after all,
 Let the feeling die and perish,
 But no disgrace.
 Then what is the mind thinking today?
 Will it dress in something else, some other touch?
 Or is it all just pretense?
  
 Tell me, one who doesn't want happiness—
 How does sorrow touch them?
 After pushing happiness away carelessly,
 By what right do they become sorrowful?
 One who pulls suffering close—
 Will they flee when suffering comes?
 Does this happen? How?
 One who doesn't live seeking comfort—
 How do they become tormented?
  
 I never wanted to dwell
 In anyone's heart,
 But when lost from that heart,
 Why does pain bind me so?
 So strong is that binding's way,
 Is this too a hue of life's riddle?
  
 I didn't want my heart filled
 With someone's love for me.
 When neglect pierces the heart,
 How do I become embarrassed?
 Having no claim,
 The heartless settles all dues.
  
 Pushing away light, merging with darkness,
 Hiding there, I live alone.
 That no shadow falls from this body—
 Seeing this, I tremble and weep!
 No light, thus no shadow—
 Is even this much left to understand?
  
 Bent fierce with wounded pride,
 I remain distant from people,
 Embracing emptiness,
 Life's tenderness dies of fear,
 Even breath catches,
 Then in which sky lies freedom?
 Does this too trouble this me?
  
 The path of love is known,
 Walking that path, I travel a thousand miles.
 The one I think of while walking so,
 May they never, like me,
 Walk even a single step.
 There's no sorrow in this.
 I don't want that path back from anyone,
 No regret either.
 I measure that path alone,
 Much walking remains ahead,
 I don't want to look back;
 Yet my self wants, breaking all barriers.
 What lament rises awakening,
 The fear of walking alone raging,
 Stops this me, divides that little path.
 The emptiness of the empty path left behind becomes void in an instant!
 What illusion is this? What magic?
  
 Taking along what's worth keeping,
 I know there's much there,
 I might remain behind,
 In the discarded heap of the forgotten-existing.
 The day they truly forget,
 I too will accept it!
 Then why will wounded pride awaken that day?
 One who has no desire to remain in mind—
 What power do they have to keep in mind?
  
 Illusion is black, spreads light within the mind
 Sticking sunglasses to eyes—the color black, that's good too.
 I know, understand, accept everything, yet love only what's wrong,
 In hope of removing something bad, I can stake my life.
 I know they won't improve, will remain so all life long,
 Yet I want only them! Dying loving in vain, I understand it all.
 Let no one know, but I know they live in my prayers,
 I may remain in darkness, whatever light there is, let it all be theirs.
  
 With an offering of dried flowers
 The worship will be adorned, life will be filled,
 I have wished!
 But then, why should the flower's fragrance come? From where?
 If that hope does awaken,
 I turn it back terribly in pain. Fate says,
 I won't touch the flower
 When life remains in it.
 What else to do?
  
 When the train departs,
 I love it,
 In tenderness, in melody, with what affection I bind it!
 Can that same me weep
 If the train increases attachment, releases from sight?
 Empty railway tracks—
 A place remains awake within the eyes, in the shadow of unfinished writing,
 I only gaze and think, am I too so helpless?
  
 The sun soaks, the rain burns,
 I know it all.
 In the excuse of losing, forgetting,
 I leave the idle umbrella at home.
 Then why do I pour out anger
 At the sun's play, at water's stream?
 Truly, I am not such an innocent child as I am foolish!
  
 I understand the mistake, know what's right,
 Knowing and understanding, I still accept the wrong,
 The path is of error, the price terrible,
 What I must pay, how do I avoid it?
 Life walks in various colors.
 Blue or green, yellow or red,
 Life lives in all of them,
 The path I'm walking now,
 I'll take responsibility for that path.
 The calculation is quite simple,
 That's why understanding is delayed.
  
 Sudden fire! The cigarette—
 In some mistake it spreads, the house becomes ash.
 People, things, all burned.
 Someone returned alone, lucky to survive.
 When they first try to walk, they reach for a cigarette,
 Seeking happiness. Can you imagine?
  
 Just like this, in the initiation of not learning, life passes in blows.