In the Weaving of Other Melodies

 I walk on, keeping distance,
 from the fair of a thousand colors, countless forms in harmony.
 Paper-lantern hearts drift and sway in gusts of wind.
 Wonder-struck eyes, speaking pictures—
 even love takes different shapes,
 people understand and speak!
 The harder it is to fathom people,
 the more their crowds blur and fade.
 In such currents, I find
 no desire to float along.
  
 Good to see, good to think—
 it's never quite that way,
 and if everything were good,
 what would become of it all?
 What would life be like then?
 If all joys came together,
 and sorrows, in their fierce grief, fled away,
 how would life play its game?
 Good matched with good,
 bad cancelled out—
 life moves in broken rhythm.
 I am good, everyone would cheer and praise,
 such goodness doesn't exist. What's the gain in that?
  
 Thoughts gather well with shadows,
 a small shadow, a little form—that's me!
 In light and shade, thoughts arise,
 if the palm tree were my mother,
 I would have grown terribly tall,
 everyone would see and say,
 so tall! What use is that?
 I am what I want to be,
 that's the first thing I forget,
 in the drug of happiness I make sorrow dance,
 what I don't have—that's what I need!
 The more invisible the pain, the faster happiness runs ahead!
  
 If I lived in the sky
 would I be greater?
 If I grew in the ocean,
 would my heart expand, embracing all?
 Would majesty rise higher?
 Would it all come together?
 In that vastness? In that union of water and shore?
 If I lived on mountainsides,
 rising to play with the sun,
 first to touch the blue,
 washing my body near the clouds,
 would I change if I were like that?
 Spreading wings, flying on the wind,
 would I claim this place across the hills?
 If this me were different, another kind,
 would that other me find comfort?
 Would sorrow leave and the heart fill with gathered crowds?
  
 If I were a flower's daughter,
 would I take to singing, spreading fragrance?
 Growing up in fairyland in wondrous magic
 in the white of clouds, on rafts of melody,
 would the sky sing, shaking its ornaments, in my swing?
 This other me
 so very precious
 I pause, thinking.
 Is this life?
  
 In happiness's lap, forgetting joy,
 swallowing pain, wiping tears
 I open my heart and blend with sorrow.
 So troubles come and say,
 "Here we are,
 we've taken you,
 in exchange we've given you ourselves."
 The pain of other people's joy is such,
 false sense, false body, false shadow, false illusion
 rocks, deludes, and enchants just so!
 In my home, every moment, such luxury
 comes daily! The heart thinks it's all mine!
 The body is airy—catches the eye, grows with care.
 The disease of happiness troubles greatly,
 sorrow pulls. Forgetting everything, it brings pain,
 when it knows, turning back means accepting fate.
 Sorrow's color, joy's manner,
 scatters color, mixes deep, flows deeper.
  
 My me, your me—
 two different beings. Who can understand?
 Wanting to enter my home,
 trying to pull this me,
 you keep your own me.
 When my me is lost,
 your me will surely leave.
 By what trick will you know me,
 if you understand this heart in your language?
 In this courtyard lips dance, eyes dance,
 the mind dances in that courtyard, in another room's different corner—
 do you understand that?
  
 How much attachment must be released
 for the pain that remains on the other side—
 how much must love be trimmed
 for life to survive, this mind to fill,
 for whatever joy to stay with me?
 Living for self, growing for self,
 measuring for self, leaping for self,
 what magic is it that creates
 people who grasp at selfishness?
 This is the rule, however much the heart may tremble!
  
 Such a person who points out the sky
 doesn't even know what the sky is!
 If love survives like this
 in false happiness's marketplace,
 the heart dies before death,
 dreams weep in false traps,
 nothing else happens, only deception!
 In the pretense of living,
 pulled by delusion,
 in off-key songs,
 seeking meaning,
 life passes as this mind wanders,
 carrying all its whims,
 everything looks so much like happiness!
  
 Here I see the moon,
 the sun suddenly,
 just like this,
 the sky adorns itself.
 In between—
 cloud-rafts,
 star-fairs,
 sun-play,
 beat their drums.
 In one sky,
 everyone floats.
 Different opinions,
 they become each other's,
 yet conflict—
 I don't see it!
 I see so much—
 that much hatred,
 that many people!
  
 Work rises to the tip of the ear,
 idleness reaches the tip of the nose,
 the race begins to become 'special,'
 all the 'ordinary' will die now. This much hope!
 Such dreams, they must come true,
 the distance grows between desire and ability,
 exceeds the limits of the shoulder's endurance,
 everything remains as before,
 however much time moves forward or back,
 what will be will be as it should.
 Today this exists,
 let it be false,
 tomorrow that comes near—
 who says it's behind?
 Forgetting cash, trusting credit's promises
 I take it all!
 Fate laughs in destiny's snare,
 I run across a thousand paths,
 cut through centuries in moments.
 Peace plunders in handfuls...
 heaps and heaps.
 I live in the land of 'got-it-all,'
 bind my eyes against light's glare,
 laugh in happiness.
 This is enough!
  
 Even with sleep in my eyes
 the day passes, night ends...
 in an instant!
 In some gap,
 the moment I open my eyes
 suddenly I see,
 only emptiness left to cross!