My Most Beloved

Sinpo

(Translated from the Tibetan by Chime Lama)

  

Your voice, your timidness is the harmonious

song that lifts me. Your words, your lips

offer sweet little kisses to me.

opening melody

I want to be the lantern that your hand sets aflame,

As I wish to touch your smooth supple hand just once.

 

I want to be the flower whose roots you pull,

As I wish to stick to your chest and slowly stop your breathing.

 

I want to be the tree along the path you walk,

As having heard your charming steps, I wish to deliver the final goodbye.

 

I want to be the tears of sorrow that burst from your eyes,

As they wish to take all the suffering of your mind somewhere far, far away.

 

I want to be the love letter you write for another,

As I wish to express the entirety of your love for another in the same way I love you.

 

I want to be the harmonious mandolin atop your lap,

As laying with my head there, I wish to sing all sorts of miserable melodies.

 

I want to be the shadow that trails your back,

As I wish to always stand behind you, so would you look backwards just once?

 

Finally     I wish I was your charnel ground

I hold your beautiful round fleshless bone to my chest and embrace it once, and I wonder if it can remain inside me for the span of an eon.

 

I wished  I was  your  most 

 

(The original Tibetan poem, chénying nyéwé mi lak, [Tib. ཆེས་སྙིང་ཉེ་བའི་མི་ལགས།] is from the author’s 2018 poetry book, duktsön gyi mépé lu by yünnen rikné gyutsel partrün khang.)

 

Sinpo (Tib. སྲིན་པོ།) whose real name is Sherab, was born into a nomadic tribe in the village of Tsaruma in Khyungchu county. He is the author of three poetry collections Diary of Evil Deeds and Defilements (2017), A Song Wounded by Poisoned Weapons (2018), and A Spoon Full of Stars (forthcoming).

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.