The Moon over an Old Temple

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Moon over an Old Temple

From behind the temple the moon is ascending.
Buddha’s ancient aureole gleams on the shiny top.
From a bamboo flute a lonely tune flows suspiring:
Nostalgic linger of a melancholic, wagging heart!

Wild grass sprouts in the slit of the stairway stones
Along the road that leads to the golden-lit Buddha!
The image of Buddha is getting clearer and clearer.
The Living Buddha’s yard is hard to see in the starlight.

From behind the temple the moon is ascending.
Buddha’s suavely sieving evening twilight and
The grave, sad tune of the flute confer solace
To the pilgrims, who come from back of beyond!

Simple alcoves, old scrolls of painted characters!
It’s a heavenly renewed temple filled with mystery
The silhouettes reflect the people’s world in deep
Pondering to become like Buddha’s shiny heart!

Whatever you want, just show off looking at Buddha’s
Image, where the cross-legged Buddha sits abidingly.
Let the heavenly bamboo flute flow out its pneuma
While the moon from behind the temple is ascending!

English translation by Imre P. Zsoldos svd

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About G Mend-Ooyo

G. Mend-Ooyo was born into a herding family in Dariganga, Mongolia, in 1952. He grew up riding horses and tending sheep, moving over the steppe by camel caravan.

In 1980, he published his first book of poetry, Birds of Thought, and has since published over forty books of poetry, novel, children’s book, fiction, criticism and essays. His ongoing work of poetic fiction, Golden Hill (first published in 1993), has become one of the most influential pieces of contemporary Mongol literature. Fifth edition of Golden Hill published in 2010, Mongolia.

Mend-Ooyo's writing deals with the life of Mongolia's nomadic herders, their culture and cultural knowledge. In his style and thematic material, he seeks to express the melody and richness of the Mongol language and nomadic society. His work has been translated into over thirty languages, including English, Japanese, Hungarian, Russian, Chinese and French, and has garnered prizes from literary organizations throughout the world. He received title Poet Laureate from World Academy of Arts and Culture /USA/ in 2009.

Also, G Mend-Ooyo is writing the Mongolian Calligraphy. He presented several exhibitions in Mongolia and abroad. Example, last his exhibition named “My Crystal Temple of Soul” in Modern Art Gallery of Mongolia, in January, 2010 and attended the President of Mongolia to it and given opening speech.

Mend-Ooyo lives in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and directs the Mongolian Academy of Poetry and Culture.

My Gente Lyric by G Mend-Ooyo

I am a child of nomadic Mongolia. We would move at the break of dawn. As a child I used to sit in a basket on the loaded cart, greeting the morning sunshine at the even pace of the plodding camel; perhaps it was then that I felt the rhythm of my future poems. When we reached our new camp, everything – the blue cranes, the small trace of white fog, the cluster of boulders, the variegated hills – would all seem new to me.

My father would seat me on his lap and hold his fiddle in front of me, then play a long clear melody – the “Jaakhan Sharga” of the Dariganga Mongols – and as this song came neighing and whinnying out at me, the local mountains would more grand, the water clearer, the song of the birds more melodious. . . Thus my little body became the instrument and my father played on me. My poetry was tuned to the melody of the Morin Khuur across the sacred space of the steppe...

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Moon over an Old Temple

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