A poem by Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b. 1976). Please refer to the Index of Mongolian Poetry and Articles for other works that may be of interest.

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LIKE AN ILLUSIVE IMAGE

(English Translation)

Like a picture that has been painted,
And yet like one still being drawn¹The Mongolian opening lines of this poem are slightly more complex than the English may suggest. In the first line, өнгөрсөн, from өнгөрөх (to pass, pass by, elapse, or pass away), adds a sense of something having passed or been completed after the act of drawing. Rendering this fully in English risked making the opening sound awkward, or prematurely elegiac, so Like a picture that has been painted keeps the line clear while allowing the poem’s later imagery of dissolution and passing to develop in its own time. In the second line, басхүү is closer to also, likewise, or moreover than to a strongly contrasting and yet. Here and yet is used to bring out the tension between an image that appears already completed and one that is still in the process of being drawn.
The one being portrayed
Walks softly and speaks with ease.

As to how the picture is being drawn?
With the brush of the eye, seeing takes shape
Blended with the pigments of mind and heart,
Drawn upon the air of emptiness.²The Mongolian хоосны агаар is literally something close to the air of emptiness or the air of the empty. In a Mongolian Buddhist context, хоосон, empty or emptiness, can carry a philosophical resonance associated with Buddhist understandings of emptiness. The wording here permits that resonance without requiring the phrase to be read as an explicit technical doctrinal term. Air of emptiness therefore retains both the ordinary sense of emptiness and the possibility of a Buddhist philosophical register.

That picture, though like a rainbow,
Is alive and full of meaning.
A work of exquisite perfection,
Where hues harmonise and dwell.

At some time or other,
In that very place where it was drawn,
It shall dissolve and fade away.
Even the painter himself, beneath the brush,
The brush beneath the paint,
The paint beneath the canvas,
The canvas beneath luminous light,
Will be gently absorbed.³The Mongolian title Илбийн мэт зураглал allows several English possibilities. Илбийн мэт is literally like an illusion, while зураглал may be rendered as ‘image’, ‘depiction’, ‘portrayal’, or ‘representation’. ‘Depiction’ is lexically close but somewhat formal in English; ‘portrayal’ can suggest a more specifically personal subject; and alternatives such as ‘appearance’ or ‘impression’, though suggestive in light of the poem as a whole, move further from the pictorial sense of the Mongolian. ‘Image’ was chosen because it remains broad while preserving the semantic field developed throughout the poem, with its repeated зураг (picture or image), зурах (to draw), зураач (painter), бийр (brush), будаг (paint or pigment), and зотон (canvas). ‘Illusive’ retains a degree of indeterminacy between illusion, appearance, and evanescence, while ‘Like’ preserves the comparative force of мэт: the title does not state that the image is an illusion, but that it is like one.

Dragon Mountain’s painter, egüzer⁴Egüzer is a Mongolian Buddhist designation associated with an ascetic or contemplative religious figure. It is retained here rather than given a more specific English equivalent such as hermit or yogi, which would narrow its range of meaning.
23.10.2025⁵Translated by C. Pleteshner, 11.09.2026, from the Mongolian original dated 23.10.2025. Translation necessarily involves interpretation across languages and cultures. Any errors are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.

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ИЛБИЙН МЭТ ЗУРАГЛАЛ

(Original Mongolian)

Зурж өнгөрсөн зураг шиг
Басхүү зурж буй зураг шиг
Зуруулж буй тэр бээр
Аяархан алхаж, талбиун өгүүлмүй
Зургийг яагахин зурж буй хэмээвээс
Нүдний бийрээр урлан харж
Сэтгэлийн будгаас нийлүүлэн авч
Хоосны агаар дээр зурж буй
Тэрхүү зураг солонго мэт атлаа
Амьтай агаад утга учиртай
Урлал үлэмж төгөлдөр
Өнгө хоршин оршоод
Аль нэгэн цаг дор
Зурагдсан тэр л газраа
Уусч одох буй заа
Зураач ч өөрөө бийр дороон
Бийр будаг дороон
Будаг зотон дороон
Зотон гэгээн гэрэл дор
Амгалан шингэх амуй яа

Луут Уулын зураач егүзэр
23.10.2025

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NOTES

• 1
  The Mongolian opening lines of this poem are slightly more complex than the English may suggest. In the first line, өнгөрсөн, from өнгөрөх (to pass, pass by, elapse, or pass away), adds a sense of something having passed or been completed after the act of drawing. Rendering this fully in English risked making the opening sound awkward, or prematurely elegiac, so Like a picture that has been painted keeps the line clear while allowing the poem’s later imagery of dissolution and passing to develop in its own time. In the second line, басхүү is closer to also, likewise, or moreover than to a strongly contrasting and yet. Here and yet is used to bring out the tension between an image that appears already completed and one that is still in the process of being drawn. ↩︎
• 2
  The Mongolian хоосны агаар is literally something close to the air of emptiness or the air of the empty. In a Mongolian Buddhist context, хоосон, empty or emptiness, can carry a philosophical resonance associated with Buddhist understandings of emptiness. The wording here permits that resonance without requiring the phrase to be read as an explicit technical doctrinal term. Air of emptiness therefore retains both the ordinary sense of emptiness and the possibility of a Buddhist philosophical register. ↩︎
• 3
  The Mongolian title Илбийн мэт зураглал allows several English possibilities. Илбийн мэт is literally like an illusion, while зураглал may be rendered as ‘image’, ‘depiction’, ‘portrayal’, or ‘representation’. ‘Depiction’ is lexically close but somewhat formal in English; ‘portrayal’ can suggest a more specifically personal subject; and alternatives such as ‘appearance’ or ‘impression’, though suggestive in light of the poem as a whole, move further from the pictorial sense of the Mongolian. ‘Image’ was chosen because it remains broad while preserving the semantic field developed throughout the poem, with its repeated зураг (picture or image), зурах (to draw), зураач (painter), бийр (brush), будаг (paint or pigment), and зотон (canvas). ‘Illusive’ retains a degree of indeterminacy between illusion, appearance, and evanescence, while ‘Like’ preserves the comparative force of мэт: the title does not state that the image is an illusion, but that it is like one. ↩︎
• 4
  Egüzer is a Mongolian Buddhist designation associated with an ascetic or contemplative religious figure. It is retained here rather than given a more specific English equivalent such as hermit or yogi, which would narrow its range of meaning. ↩︎
• 5
  Translated by C. Pleteshner, 11.09.2026, from the Mongolian original dated 23.10.2025. Translation necessarily involves interpretation across languages and cultures. Any errors are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise. ↩︎

End of transcript.

Please refer to the INDEX for other poems and articles that may be of interest.

© 2013–2026. CP in Mongolia. “Mongolian Poetry 66: “Like An Illusive Image” 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: 11 September 2026. Last updated: 11 September 2026.