Finally Comes The White Peacock

Nature used trace metals and rare earths Held their toxins safe in keratin outgrowths Lined up as pigments on a refractive surface Collided light waves to give a shimmer Varied their hues to depict an eyespot Key to fit the template in a peahen's eye But this is a key to turn the lock further To lock them into more birth-death cycles Into entwinements down through generations Beauty grows as ever from workings of will And will in the end surrenders to beauty Now along comes this pure-white one Ghost of will still willing Says...Look to the core beyond adornment See how it adorns me all the more! .......... Here is a Chinese version of my poem, translated by Mr. Wang Hao: "终于，白孔雀来了" 大自然使用了稀有金属和稀土 将其毒素纳入角质蛋白，生长到体外 让它们作为颜料排列在一个折射光线的表面上 并让光束折射成幽深的闪烁，让斑斓的色彩绘成 一只翎眼 这是一把开启母孔雀眼孔的钥匙，但这钥匙的作用 是把锁芯拧得更紧 把它们牢牢锁进一重又一重的生死轮 会让它们纠缠着，一代一代地传下去 美丽一如既往地从意志的作用中生发出来 但意志力最终要降伏于美丽 这时一路走来这纯白的一只意志的幽灵 仍然愿意诉说- - 那装饰之下的内核 你看它，即便此刻，还在装饰我 王浩译