By Thomas Page
The Untranslatable
This is a series of poems of words that do not directly translate into English. I have tried to capture the essence of the word in a poem.
Everything seems to come in pairs—
The tree, the root
The flower, the stem
The sky, the cloud
—And these pairs are in harmony
Whether they like it or not
Like the grooves in a screw
Having a predestined purpose
In the plank of wood—
Together in the beginning
Apart in the beginning
Together in the end
Apart in the end.
Language: Mandarin
Academy of the Heart And Mind 