This is an interpretation in the English language of a beautiful work of Mongolian prose* by the contemporary scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b.1976).
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No Dimension, No Intersection
However many years have passed and gone,
Your image, your manner, remain the same within my heart—
As if it had all happened only yesterday,
Everything is both old as before, and yet somehow renewed.
* * *
Is this only memory,
Or something that truly once occurred?
I ask myself, gazing deeply into the mirror of my thoughts.
* * *
Beneath me, the world’s silken instants
Flash before me in the blink of an eye,
Yet along the journey of time they unfold slowly, vividly
Within the realm of abstraction and hollow heart
There exists no dimension, no intersection at all.
* * *
At times, it is as though the wheel of time stands still,
And on the wall of thought, hangs
A painting — perfectly still, yet alive,
Like the moon’s reflection on the lake’s clear mirror,
Sometimes a soft wind of thought passes by,
That reflection ripples, revealing more clearly the meaning of emptiness.
And sometime, rises to life
Unfolding a new creation of its own
* * *
Whatever the phenomenon of this airy existence called life may be,
It turns into something meaningful and lyrical.
The air you breathe is the pulse within my heart,
And there too lies the pool of nectar of eternal life.
When, someday, I walk under the hand of the Great Path
May we meet again with the same steadfast heart.
* * *
Thus sang the Dragon of the Man on Rocky Mountain’s Temple.
11 October 2025
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Notes
- This is a work of prose. The main difference between poetry and prose is that prose uses the natural flow of speech in sentences and paragraphs, while poetry uses a more structured form, often with lines and stanzas, and emphasises rhythm, meter, rhyme other (ethnographically-specific and/or globalised) linguistic structures and devices.
- “Dimension” is such an interesting concept word! In poetic writing, “dimension” refers to the multi-faceted qualities of the composition, generally broken down into three aspects: (i) the lexical thematic dimension (meaning and theme derived from word choice): (ii) the visual dimension (the poem’s visual evocation and shape on the page) and (iii) the rhythmic acoustic dimension (the sound, meter, and rhythm created by the words). In addition to these three, some literary scholars also refer to a “fourth dimension” that is specific to each reader. This dimension includes the individual reader’s background, beliefs, and unique perspective, which moulds their personal comprehension of the poem or work of prose. In physics, the fourth dimension, as time in space-time, is considered to form the cornerstone of our comprehension of physical laws and predictions. The theories of modern physics, like Einstein’s general relativity, rely on this concept. Dictionaries, Merriam-webster for example, define the fourth dimension as something outside the range of ordinary human experience.
- No Dimension, No Intersection is a visually-evocative work of prose. This refers to something that creates a vivid mental image or strong emotional response in the reader. It uses descriptive language (art, or other media) to stir feelings, memories, and sensory experiences by painting a clear picture (using words) in one’s mind. In writing, such visually-evocative imagery helps readers “see” a scene, person, consideration or emotion as if they are there. Poets and writers use descriptive words, metaphors, and other techniques to create this effect.
- From another perspective, No Dimension, No Intersection is a tender meditation on the intersection of memory, time (past, present, future) and “emptiness” of reality, (a key concept in this Mongolian lineage of Gelugpa Buddhist logic). The technique of posing a question, “Is this only memory, or something that truly once occurred?” is used for philosophical reasoning, that in western scholarly circles is described as Socratic questioning (named after the Greek philosopher Socrates).
- Having studied this visually-evocative contemplation by Zava Damdin Bagsh, I returned to my photographic archive and by day’s end had produced a number of digital artworks, one of which is Artscape 17: Hallway Installation. To my mind, these two are connected. I’ll leave working out the “how?” and the “why?” to you.
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Translation is always an interpretation into another culture.
Any errors are of my own making.
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Attribution
In keeping with ethical scholarly research and publishing practices and the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, I anticipate that anyone using or translating into another language all or part of this article and submitting it for accreditation or other purpose under their own name, to acknowledge this URL and its author as the source. Not to do so, is contrary to the ethical principles of the Creative Commons license as it applies to the public domain.
End of transcript.
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© 2013-2025. CP in Mongolia. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 13 October 2025. Last updated: 14 October 2025.