So willing I am to let a little knife
Cut up my body

All the flesh embedding seeds
Has backed out
From my centre
The opulent full moon has retreated from the clouds
Leaving a set of dry leather clothes
Getting shabbier and shabbier in the autumn winds

People all say the rind when hollowed and exposed to air
Will let germs patrol in and out so it grows mould and dries up
While all fragrance will escape in a wink
But I feel an expanse of soulful void in my centre
Opening up to feel the infinite space
The once enclosed vastness expands like the great Earth
Every star thirsts for the Earth’s gaze
I look up and a bright star solemnly descends

You stand gently in my centre
And I feel like a boat made of a lotus petal
Ferrying across the waters of utumnal night
Starting with the pistils
The flower lamp slowly unfolds with petals gently extending

And concentric rings of light spreading
Illuminating myself till the ultimate edge
Warmly nursing all my wounds

A hot air stream fills up the centre
The shrunken skin gradually expands again
An unprecedented fullnes and richness
Cannot be daunted and layer after layer
Is penetrated until all pores on the surface
Are flooded with a veil of goldin light
As a spread of light rings embraces it with burning heat
The latent fragrance is touched and releases filaments
To intertwine and entangle each other like threads of incense from an urn
Inthe chill at midnight while winds are frolicking among the rustling leaves
I turn up a petal of your rind like turning up a collar.
A lamp is born ─
The greatest pledge and promise in the universe
I duck and scrutinize, finding you
Out of sheer beauty and happiness
In the soughing winds shedding silent tears
That fall burning hot on my palm
And make me feel I’m shutting between death and eternity

I can receive all the tears of your life
When all the ripe pomelos plop
And fall from the trees into the soil
While the unshielden candle light is blown out by the wind

We keep afloat in the winds and the waves
Like a boat made of lotus petal
And look at ease through the half-open window
Showing no regret. In this life I have you.
The short journey
Has become scenery and I have enjoyed scenic views of the human world ….

‧In the old days, decades ago, at the mid-autumn festival, children
were given lanterns made, not only of paper, but often also of pomelo
rind, dried to become translucent, and carved into various shapes,
such as cockerels.

13 November 1988