Wesbound
Carmel School Association Elsa High School , Haviv , Oz - 16
七言律诗 style
“ Our zhongguo is perfect , All east Guangzhong ’ s our subject . There is nothing else we lack , Civility we dictate . In culture we pioneer , And science we by far lead . Yet despite this something ’ s wrong , Further knowledge must we seek ?
A man of gifts and talent , For which he must be gallant . New knowledge he will seek far , Foreign cultures document . Coastward philosophy ’ s known , Up north barbarous people . The west yet strange and eerie , May hold some great great beauty .
Oh what lands ’ ll encounter he , Friends or rivals will they be ? Politics may matter less , If new music he brings back . Calligraphic strokes endless , Triumphant not war but art . From flawless home ancestry , To pursue the journey west .”
Journey westbound I ’ m to go , To seek new worlds my breeze ’ ll blow . Xi ’ an marks my journey ’ s start , Qin Shi Huang bids me farewell . In Qinghai I ’ ve heard not nought , If not King Mu ’ s Kunlun trek . Chengdu held our greatest pearls , Sima Xiangru and Yang Xiong .
In Kashgar I see less Han , And see legacies of Khan . From there I hear twelve Muqams , And through my eyes hear colors . Here balanced are two cultures , One familiar one less known . More than silk ’ s traded on this road , But Buddha Islam and Tao .