Aspiration

The sweetness of poverty like this…

To lose everything yours, even the egoism of being,

So poor that you can only belong to the crowd…

I gave away everything mine, I spent all my being,

And I possess only what in me is common to all..

The sweetness of poverty like this…

I am not lonely any more, I am dissolved among equal men!

I have walked. Long my way

The emphatic mark of my steps

Remained on ground wet with morning dew.

Then the Sun ascended, heat vibrated in the air

In golden particles of light and warm breath.

The ground burned and hardened.

The mark of my feet is now invisible…

But the Earth remains, the tenderly dumb Earth,

And growing, grieving, dying in Earth,

The always equal men remain…

And I feel larger, equalizing myself to the equal men!

Mario de Andrade

translated by John Nist

(Picture: Heaven and Earth glow red, Fu Baoshi)