I did not wish to be ruined, yet they broke me
Placed the blood-red oleander of sorrow in my hands,
And shattered the sanctuary I sought to create.
I did not wish to be ruined.
My fragile mortal self was swept away,
Like a sandbank dissolved in the river’s embrace
Drowned in the rising tide.

Now, I am a faint, yearning melody,
A barren heart like the winter maples,
Stripped of leaves, standing solitary.
Exhaustion brushes my weary soul,
A fleeting touch of ephemeral fire.

I did not wish to be ruined, but time,
That relentless racehorse drew me into its fray.
I was trampled underfoot,
Left without the laurels of victory.

If rebellion whispers softly:
“I will trade my life for love,”
Then let me declare
I sought to be a revolutionary for love,
Not a casualty of ruin.

This farcical struggle for survival,
The brittle fight against belief,
The fractured vistas of desolation
None of this did I desire.

Who ordained that the art within my chest
Would become a commodity for the marketplace?
Who foretold the sun would bleed in the wind,
Or the earth would be forced to dream
Of a globalized existence tethered to survival’s vow?

I wanted none of this
Not the fabled golden deer of human birth,
Not the indulgence of carnal mirages.
No, nothing.

I did not wish to be ruined.
I reject the cultivation of substitute dreams.
I am the youth forged in time’s fiery blood
Give me back the silent mountains, the tender blades of grass.
Let me build a vast realm of love once more.

Rise, earth, even in drought!
Measure the fields of my heart,
And be witness to my ascent.
Gather in trustful embrace;
Let us unite, a collective testament of faith.

I will shroud this sprawling city of ruin
In the crushing stillness of resolve.
Do not destroy me again.
I did not wish to be ruined.

I did not long to witness
the fractured conflict of belief,
Nor the mocking of chrysanthemums
beneath moonlit waves.
Give me faith, an enduring
bond of camaraderie
Where the miraculous
world of dreams awakens.

In the deep abyss of darkness,
Let the dying sun rise again,
Unfold the gates of dawn,
And kindle one more luminous dream.