A Personal Reconnaissance

From Ladakh
Tibet is just a gaze away.

They said:
from that black knoll
at Dumtse it’s Tibet.
For the first time, I saw
my country Tibet.

In a hurried hidden trip
I was there at the mound.

I sniffed the soil,
scratched the ground,
listened to the dry wind
and the wild old cranes.

I didn’t see the border,
I swear there wasn’t anything
different, there.

I didn’t know
if I was there or here.
I didn’t know
if I was here or there.

They say the kyang
come here every winter.
They say the kyang
go there every summer.

(Kyang-wild ass found in herds in Changthang (northern plains) of Tibet and Ladakh)

from ‘Kora’ stories and poems. By Tenzin Tsundue