This is an English language interpretation of a beautiful work of prose* by the contemporary Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b.1976).
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Where all dimensions fall away
However many years and ages may pass,
Your image, your manner, remains within my heart—
As if it had all happened only yesterday,
Everything both old as before, and yet somehow new.
Is this only memory,
Or something that truly once occurred?
I ask myself so, gazing deeply into thought’s mirror.
Beneath me, the world’s silken instants
Seem shown in the blink of an eye,
Yet in the journey of time they unfold slowly,
Depicted within the hollow space of the abstract mind—
Where no intersection, no dimension exists.
At times, it is as though the wheel of time has stopped,
And on the wall of thought hangs
A painting — perfectly still, yet alive,
Like the moon’s reflection quivering on a lake.
When a stray breeze of thought drifts in,
That reflection ripples, revealing more clearly the meaning of emptiness,
Or rises to life, as if showing a new creation.
Whatever the phenomenon of this airy existence called life may be,
It makes meaning lyrical poetry of the unseen
The air you breathe is the pulse within my heart,
There too lies the pool of deathless nectar.
When, someday, under the hand of the Great Path we meet again,
May it be with a mind unchanging, serene in its depth!
Thus sang the dragon of the man from the Temple in the Rocks.
11 October 2025
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Notes
- 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) linguistic structures and devices.
- “Dimension” is such an interesting concept word! In poetry, for example, “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 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.
- From one perspective a meditation at the intersection of memory, time (past, present, future) and the “emptiness” of reality, (a key concept in this lineage of Buddhist logic), this short work of prose utilises the technique of posing questions in philosophical reasoning (described as Socratic questioning named after the Greek philosopher Socrates). It involves articulating a cohesive and evocative narrative around a central question, “Is this only memory, or something that truly once occurred?” to challenge our underlying beliefs and assumptions and to stimulate critical thinking and self-reflection on our part.
- Having studied this contemplation by Zava Damdin, I returned to my photographic archive and by day’s end 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.
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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: 13 October 2025.