Shangguan Changfeng: “Blossoms of Phalaenopsis: Dedicated to Lan Xin, In the Name of Purity”

Translated by Lan‑Xin Samei

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

Blossoms of Phalaenopsis: Dedicated to Lan Xin, In the Name of Purity

Poem by Shangguan Changfeng

Phalaenopsis are in bloom,
Beneath the morning glow of Wenbi Lake.
Blossom after blossom,
Like letters from the snow‑capped mountains,
Sent down unto the mortal world.

Pure and immaculate.
Nothing but whiteness,
Nothing more, nothing less.
Nothing but wholeness,
Nothing wanting, nothing excess.

That pristine heart,
Grown from this very land.
The Dongba paper knows it,
That bamboo brush knows it.
Every first stroke upon the page,
Is a seed,
Slowly awakening through the night.

You plant these seeds into poetry,
Into the crevices between two languages,
Upon the invisible road stretching from Hunan to Lijiang.
Thirty years long,
You have walked yourself into a river,
Carrying those ancient characters,
Flowing toward souls who scarcely believe in the moon.

White butterflies rest upon your shoulders,
Their wingtips trembling gently —
Blessings taking flight from the Dongba scriptures.
They utter no word,
Simply abide in whiteness, simply exist.
With their pure radiance,
they bring soft closure to a love that has traveled far.

This pristine heart is no garden‑plucked flower.
It grows of itself from this land steeped in healing.
Every petal
is a thought of love and compassion,
resting lightly in your hands.

Today the wind breathes soft.
Sweet osmanthus shall bloom in a few days,
yet phalaenopsis are already in full flower,
blooming just right.
Like your well‑tendered gentleness,
your unyielding resolve,
and the perfect way
you have graced this world
through all these years.

By Shangguan Changfeng
For Lan Xin’s birthday
At Dongba Culture Academy, when osmanthus is soon to bloom, September 5, 2026