We Believe in Our Soul

By Xiwa
Translated By Wang Ping

Translated from the Chinese

We believe in our soul
More so than our visible, touchable flesh
We believe in our soul, as if we had seen her
Touched her, bent down to wash her feet
As if we’d smelled the sweat in her armpits
Heard her morning yawn and whisper
We believe that our soul is cleaner
Than our flesh, purer and lighter
As if our body was her burden
When we insult someone, we say he’s soulless
When we praise him, we say he has a soul
What made us believe so firmly in something
So ephemeral, so impossible to prove?
If one day the proof shows
That our soul is just a parasite, old, ugly, and dirty
Depending on our flesh to live, to purify
How many of us will collapse?
What kind of people will stand still
Or rise from the ruins
One person or an entire community?

Notes:

This poem is part of the portfolio “Wind Crossing Grasses: Poems from Poems from China’s Dragon Rivers.” The folio is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology of the same name, translated and edited by Wang Ping, with a co-introduction from Gary Snyder (Kinship Poetry Press, 2026). You can read the rest of the folio in the July/August 2025 issue. 

Source: Poetry (July/August 2025)