WHILE STOPPING BY…

I wrote this poem while reading 2000 Nobel Prize winning Chinese author Gao Xingjian's 'soul mountain'.
here is a brief introduction to the book and why i thought of reading it...


Soul Mountain (Chinese: 灵山; pinyin: língshān) is a novel by 2000 Nobel Prize winning Chinese author Gao Xingjian, first published in Chinese (Taipei) in 1990. It was first published in the United States in English in December 5, 2000, and was translated by Mabel Lee. The novel is a product of the author's journey in rural areas of China, inspired by a false diagnosis of fatal lung cancer.

The novel is a part autobiographical, part fictional account of a man's journey to find the fabled mountain Lingshan. It is a combination of story fragments, travel accounts, unnamed characters (referred to by the pronouns "I", "you", "she", etc.), and folk poetry/legends.

synopsis-the reason why I read it

At the suggestion of a fellow traveler, the protagonist chooses to seek out the elusive Lingshan, a sacred mountain. The narrator himself, however, multiplies as the narrative progresses. First he divides into "I" and "you". Then the "you" creates a third voice, a troubled and emotional "she", followed by "he". These characters hold some interest for the sacred mountain, yet in the quest the sensitivity and humanity of the characters is revealed, and the narrator realizes that he still craves the warmth of human society, despite its anxieties.

and now my inspired little piece...

WHILE STOPPING BY…

Cold waiting veins of future
Can that mar the living present?
Forget the series of mistakes made in the past?
Time flows on, touching similar shores.
A single sound slips into history.
Yet history repeats itself.
Crystal-clear lakes of Earth
Reflect the stoic faces
Gaping blankly at them-
A Gush of Wind! The picture gets blurred
The traveler treads on his way…