In recent weeks, it has been raining steadily where I live, so I have spent more time indoors, re-reading and cataloguing resources in my library, a necessary and enriching way to spend one’s time. In one of the folios, I rediscovered this beautiful poem by the Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b. 1976), whose poetry invites one to return to it again and again.
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MIRROR OF THE HEART
(English translation)
Those special scenes that shine from time to time
from behind the mirror of the heart
Those times, now passed like a dream
An incomparable vivid memory
There, a now distant light illuminates the path
towards a decent future
Those wonderful life epics that creep into my thoughts
Those lived times that seem to grow out of the mind
An unpredictably free eloquence
Thresholds, like high-flying masts
All of a sudden, those nostalgic meadows come to mind
Those moments that flash,
like travelling through time at the speed of light
There is no one to witness those stories like legends
The Moon of great love and compassion reflected in the lake.
by Zava Damdin
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An interpretation into the English language by Zava Damdin and C. Pleteshner from the original Mongolian 15.04.2023.
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FURTHER READING
A. Connecting a lyricism of the “Heart” to the resonance of sound
Soundscape 10: Ejel Gansam. As a cover recording, this provides a direct audio experience of Mongolian melodic structure, mirroring the emotional depth of the “Mirror of the Heart.”
Soundscape 08: Amyrai. This track brings in the “landscape” element of sound, which is semantically essential to Mongolian poetry.
Intermedia 06: Silent Moon. The “Moon” and the “Mirror” are often paired in Mongolian and Buddhist literature as symbols of reflection and clarity. This intermedia piece provides a visual-audio representation of this theme.
B. Cultural “frameworks” to help understand the context of the heart and mind in Mongolia.
Letter from Mongolia 24: On Faith and Devotion: Part 1. The “Mirror of the Heart” is often a religious metaphor. This article starts the series on devotion, anchoring the poem in Mongolian Buddhist practice.
To more fully appreciate the deep resonance of Poetry 17: Mirror of the Heart, it is helpful to look at the scholarly framework that supports it. I invite you to explore Letter from Mongolia 18: a deliberately interdisciplinary practice, which serves as the foundational “why” behind the creative and scholarly connections you find here. While the poem captures the emotional clarity of the heart, this “Letter” explains the deliberate methodology used to bridge the worlds of lyricism, sound, and philosophy. By weaving together these seemingly disparate threads, the aim is to offer you more than just a translation; rather, to provide a unified, multi-dimensional journey into the heart of Mongolian culture.
Letter from Mongolia 19: Udgan Tenger expands the semantic framework to include Shamanic and spiritual naming conventions.
Letter from Mongolia 28: Friendship, Masculinity & Memory. Poetry is a vehicle for memory. This article explores how identity is remembered, grounding the abstract “heart” of the poem in a contemporary social reality.
end of transcript.
Refer to the INDEX for other poems and articles that may be of interest.
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© 2013-2026. CP in Mongolia. “Mongolian Poetry 17: Mirror of the Heart” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Open access should not be understood as the absence of attribution. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 30 May 2025. Last updated: 25 August 2026. |