“May Love Be the Base Color of Your Soul” 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

May Love Be the Base Color of Your Soul

We have all loved.
Some once knew love,
yet it faded away forever after.
For their hearts have grown numb and dull
in the absence of love.
Deprived of another’s affection,
they forget to love themselves,
and dare not love others anymore.
Like hedgehogs,
they curl up inside hard spiny shells.

Others have loved and been loved,
and also lost love.
Yet to carry love within the heart
is what sets them apart.
For those who bear love in their hearts,
love grows from within.

It does not depend on love given by others,
nor do they withhold love from the world.
They know how to love themselves,
and are willing to love others.
Loved or unloved,
having or losing,
nothing can alter their original loving heart.

The heart is a tree.
Nurtured by love,
it blooms and breathes lasting fragrance.
If love departs from the heart,
though the body still lives,
the soul has withered.

What is love?
Love is letting go.
Love is release.
Love is forgiveness.
Love is acceptance.
Love is tolerance.
Love is understanding.
Love is to help another to flourish.

May time pass, year after year,
and within your heart and mine,
love remains, endures always,
grows ever fuller.
May love be the base color
of our soul.