An Appointment Beneath the Magnolia Tree
By Lan Xin (China)
A thousand years ago
I knelt and prayed before the Buddha:
“Let me meet thee in my fairest hour.”
It was a spring day, magnolias breathing fragrance.
I came, my gown trailing fluttering butterflies,
Eyes soft as rippling autumn waters,
Graceful in every step,
A faint smile playing on my lips.
There thou stoodest beneath the magnolia tree—
Still the gentle, noble gentleman of yore,
Gazing at me, transfixed,
Lost in a trance,
Lost in a dream.
My beloved,
Dost thou recall our pact from that past life?
The sacred oath we swore beneath this very tree?
I stretch out my palm—
A crimson mole bears witness.
For this moment of reunion,
I have waited a thousand years.
Throughout these thousand years,
I wandered through a thousand mountains and rivers,
Until my face bloomed like a white magnolia—
Just to mirror, in the lake of thy heart,
That fleeting glance, that soft smile of yore.
A longing woven through three lifetimes,
At long last, no longer adrift.
This moment—
Is but a dream,
A sweet intoxication.
In dreams,
That thousand-year-long yearning
Turned into one beautiful encounter after another:
Meeting thee, beneath the magnolia tree.
That longing embroidered deep in my heart
Unfolded into an endless, tender rapture.
I wake at the dawn of spring,
As if thou wert right beside my pillow—
Thy scent within reach,
Thy warmth lingering in my palms,
Thy tenderness still imprinted on my brows.
My beloved,
Follow the path from our dreams,
Go find that magnolia tree.
Upon its blooms—lingers my fragrance,
Within its boughs—our hearts reflect each other.
When thou findest it,
I shall come.
Paradise on Earth – Shangri-La
By Lan Xin (China)
High-dimensional winds gently push open the gate of light above snow-capped peaks
Wooden houses, mirrored by starlight, sink softly into lake waves
Meadows stretch beyond clouds, reaching all the way to the Milky Way’s edge
Gramophones spin, as if carrying time along at a slow, gentle pace
Libraries hold atlases, their pages painted with rivers and mountains
Songs of all ethnic groups drift together across the vast cosmic galaxy
No gunsmoke sears the wings of doves
No strife tears apart the veins of our planet
All living things unfold, blooming into the shape of love—
Different faiths overlap here, weaving a single tapestry of peace
Different languages all speak of the longing for “harmonious coexistence”
Different skin tones gather here, merging into a single warmth
Different ethnic groups weave here, crafting a shared tranquility
Diverse cultures blend closely, like snow-capped mountains with all creation
If you ask, what color is an ideal world?
It is the cosmic light held together by all skin tones
It is the song of peace sung in the same heartbeat by all
It is a tender love letter from Shangri-La to the world
It is a pure paradise bathed in the glow of sun and moon
It is a paradise on Earth lifted by snow-capped peaks
It is a spiritual home that crosses mountains and seas
It is the mystical Eastern land written of by Western pens
It is a Utopian dream where humanity transcends dimensions
It is a beautiful model of boundless coexistence in the world
May the love of the universe flow across every mountain and river on Earth
May every corner of the world mirror the image of Shangri-La
May every face glow with the smile of earthly happiness
May every soul find the Shangri-La—within their hearts
Profile of Lan Xin (Lan Xin Samei)
Lan Xin (Lanxin Samei) is an internationally renowned Chinese-English bilingual writer and translator, the only female inheritor of UNESCO Memory of the World-listed Dongba Culture, Dean of Lanxin Samei Academy and Yulong Wenbi Dongba Culture Academy, and laureate of Premio Letterario Internazionale Francesco Giampietri.
Her works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian and other languages. Her original Lan Xin’s Wisdom Quotations has captivated over 100 million readers at home and abroad, delivering Chinese culture and philosophical wisdom to the world. Widely acclaimed by international media, she has been hailed as the “Ambassador of Universal Love”, “Cultural Envoy Between East and West”, “Epitome of Multicultural Integration” and “Guide for Contemporary Women”, standing as a paradigm for the global dissemination of Chinese culture.
