Ying Zheng

Ying Zheng, “Visions of Beatrice” (2019/2023)

Visions of Beatrice
After Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Dante’s Dream

If the soul has a corporeal presence
in the world where I struggle to breathe
through visions of your eyes, the best reward
for unrequited passion, then I think
I’ve seen, in a series of delusive
stages that leads to my plight and delight,
the soul of yours, scooting off beneath brows.

In a predawn dream I, led by fiery Love,
staggered into a chamber where I had
the last glimpse of your soul, lying under
a pall of rose petals, a serene face
propped up by the neck stretching out
and yawning as if to take in the scent
of the poppies scattered on the servile floor.
Holding my twitching fingers, Love bent over
and whispered in your ear, ‘Keep your eyes shut.
Your time is due. The soul sunk deep into
your sockets will be promoted to Heaven.
It’ll stand a better chance of stifling the scream
that came from where my arrow shouldn’t’ve landed.’

Love is a pilgrim that takes me to the shrine
of a pure soul, but lets pleasure not persist.

(July 2019; slightly revised on 14 January 2023)