“An Appointment Beneath the Magnolia Tree” poem by Lan Xin

Lan Xin (Lan Xin)

World Memory Heritage The Only Female Inheritor of Dongba Culture, International Renowned Writer & Poet. Internationally acclaimed bilingual writer, poet and translator, member of the Chinese Writers Association. The only female inheritor of UNESCO-listed Dongba Culture, International Disseminator of Dongba Culture and practitioner of Chinese culture’s global outreach. Winner of the Italian Francesco Giampietri International Literary Award, President of Lanxin Samei Academy and Dean of Yulong Wenbi Dongba Culture Academy.

Eva Lianou Petropoulou
Αποκλειστικη Eκπρόσωπος για την Ελλάδα για την προώθηση της πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς – Dongba Culture Κίνα

An Appointment Beneath the Magnolia Tree

A thousand years ago

I knelt and prayed before the Buddha:

“Let me meet thee in my fairest hour.”

It was a spring day, magnolias breathing fragrance.

I came, my gown trailing fluttering butterflies,

Eyes soft as rippling autumn waters,

Graceful in every step,

A faint smile playing on my lips.

There thou stoodest beneath the magnolia tree—

Still the gentle, noble gentleman of yore,

Gazing at me, transfixed,

Lost in a trance,

Lost in a dream.

My beloved,

Dost thou recall our pact from that past life?

The sacred oath we swore beneath this very tree?

I stretch out my palm—

A crimson mole bears witness.

For this moment of reunion,

I have waited a thousand years.

Throughout these thousand years,

I wandered through a thousand mountains and rivers,

Until my face bloomed like a white magnolia—

Just to mirror, in the lake of thy heart,

That fleeting glance, that soft smile of yore.

A longing woven through three lifetimes,

At long last, no longer adrift.

This moment—

Is but a dream,

A sweet intoxication.

In dreams,

That thousand-year-long yearning

Turned into one beautiful encounter after another:

Meeting thee, beneath the magnolia tree.

That longing embroidered deep in my heart

Unfolded into an endless, tender rapture.

I wake at the dawn of spring,

As if thou wert right beside my pillow—

Thy scent within reach,

Thy warmth lingering in my palms,

Thy tenderness still imprinted on my brows.

My beloved,

Follow the path from our dreams,

Go find that magnolia tree.

Upon its blooms—lingers my fragrance,

Within its boughs—our hearts reflect each other.

When thou findest it,

I shall come.