Chinese Mandarin
(An Attempt to Interpret the Ben Day Etching)
(Free Verse)
I am as the sun
In the honorable heavens
To these humble ones
Who come to me
For counsel.
My coat is redder
Than its flame,
And my wealth
And wisdom
Turn all that I look upon
To gold.
My ships
Wear mighty sails
And conquer dreadful seas
As swiftly as a bird
Ascends the clouds.
I am as a god.
These humble ones
Who are my people
Lift their faces
To me,
And I speak
In silence.
Evelyn Coffey
Ben Day or benday is a process of laying dots over an illustration for printing in a newspaper. Evelyn had seen a photo in the newspaper of a Chinese soldier leaving his family to go to war, and her empathy found her becoming that man, writing this poem. What remarkable empathy, especially at a time when xenophobia, fear of those "different" from us, was the norm.
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