Soul Migration

I believe in the eternal all-knowingness,
In civilizations created by aliens,
In worlds we perceive as parallel dimensions,
And the growing clarity of reincarnation.
I believe in everything that is actually good,
Even what cannot be tainted or misunderstood.
I believe that for my soul, all will be worth it
And that after I die, a new life will surface.

When my soul returns for the first time again,
It will be as a cool spring with clean water within.
Rushing as a creek down the weathered cliffs,
Growing into a stream, bustling and flowing quick.
And as its sound grows ever so quiet,
The flow forms a lake, serene and silent.
Then the lake creates a huge, rushing river,
To wash into the sea, all that still lingers.

After that, I will return for a second time, too,
As a small seed in a field, growing true.
I will wait patiently for spring to arrive
And bring the rainfall so new life can arise.
I’ll grow stems and leaves as I emerge happy,
With a strong trunk, I’ll be a proud little sapling.
Decades later, I’ll become a powerful old oak,
Providing shelter and shade for the tired, traveling folk.

When upon this Earth a third time I am born,
I will take on a huge spiderweb’s form.
Suspended in branches, glistening in the sun,
Catching all that flies through, never missing one.
Capturing the prey in a sticky, strong hold,
Awaiting my dark creator with meals to behold.
When the fall comes, and dew settles on the ground,
The web will dissolve with no trace to be found.

Perhaps I am reborn for the fourth time,
As a buck rabbit on a small farm, I’ll rise.
While I get to eat and drink whenever I want,
I can help all the female bunnies become moms.
And that is how the long weeks and months pass,
I sit in the corner, getting high off some grass.
But as all good things must come to an end,
The farmer wants rabbit stew for lunch this weekend.

In fact, I’m reborn a fifth time by now
As a gentle breeze, making wildflowers bow.
But if they refuse to bend and resist my call,
A wild wind I’d become and tear into them all.
My raging anger could destroy oh so many things,
I’d twist centuries-old trees to make it seem they have wings.
And as I grow into a magnificent tornado,
I would ravage the innocent world and then go.

It is now my sixth time on Karma’s road,
Lying on the seafloor as a stone, I erode.
Only one thing’s on my mind for the last thousand years,
Where will I go once I fully disappear?
When nothing is left but a handful of sand,
In which the atoms can no longer band.
Allowing myself to succumb to the waves,
I would finally arrive in a new and pure place.

There is nothing left now but my soul, renewed,
From which I am born a seventh time, too.
After this long journey, Nirvana, I’ve reached,
Thanks to six lifetimes, there’s no fear left in me.
The transmigration of my soul has come to an end,
Except for strange emptiness, all feelings I transcend.
Glimmering brightly, I float into the abyss,
And from everything I become nothingness.

2026.06.26. Translated by Esther Brownwood