Bride of My Life

Chen Bhang

(Translated from the Tibetan by Chime Lama)

 

Bride of my life,   Yeshe Tso

As alcohol swiftly intoxicates,   death draws near me.

I      don’t have long to live.     Longevity forsakes my promise.

Look closely with your white eyes,        my lady.

  In the night of day,      one hundred and eight weapons hound my long hair.

Beneath the yellowing shade of this old house’s ancient tree,    how many drops of poison have been buried?

My lady,    you are the bride of my future, future lives as well.

I’ve     griped profusely over your time here on earth.

The way the mind that swells in my chest safeguards you is furious.

Those people of the “establishment”      who enslave themselves – I blow them out of my ass.

Meanwhile, I have another door.

Though death may seal both my eyes, that door belongs to you alone.

   Before I die,              I offer you the best and worst of me.

This husband of yours       lacked any control over good and wicked throughout his entire life.

Yet        when my veins have been severed,

my only regret is that I won’t be able to let my long hair down as I stand before you.

 

(The original Tibetan poem, kyewa di dakmo, [Tib. སྐྱེ་བ་འདིའི་བདག་མོ།] was published in the author’s collection, chob tsawo, [Tib. ཆོབ་ཚ་པོ།] in 2018).

 

Chen Bhang (Tib. འཕྱན་བྷང་།) was born in 1992, in the region of Mundong to his father, Ngangwa Sangön, and mother, Nagza Phagthar. From the age of ten, he wandered around many schools, big and small. From 2015 onward, he chose an uncertain lifestyle like that of a wanderer. He is presently still leading that life and composes unpredictable literature. Literature, for him, whether he is able to keep up with new literature or not comes down to two internal conditions, namely his cells and his bones. In his perspective, if the root of one or the other were severed, the essence of solitude would always be found. Of his own poetic compositions, there are two books, and of his translations, there are three.

Chime Lama is the Poetry Editor of Yeshe and the Co-Editor in Chief of the Brooklyn Review. She received an MA in Divinity with a focus in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Language from The University of Chicago and an MFA in Poetry from the City University of New York (Brooklyn College) where she teaches as an adjunct lecturer in the English Department.