Who Am I? (Written In The Style Of Homer) Poem by Yuan Yuan Kelly

I have responded to this inquiry many times,
though I cannot immediately.
Where shall I begin? Perhaps the most perceptible? An accomplishment?
My educators have tested me to make me superior.
I reckon I shall open with my name: let it be acknowledged,
and if I become successful,
this bond will unite us, even in the course of separation.

Yuan yuan is my name,
and elegant girl from the capital is its significance.
My curiosity has made me who I am today,
which is all but an unknown characteristic of mine.
This prominence has gone in circulation to the moon's crescent.
My dwelling place is in the shadows of the Lama temple,
under a large tree.
Though my home lands lie in the northeast,
where the sky is an ongoing pool of the azure ocean,
where the grass and trees are a million shades of green,
where the most important people of my existence remain.
My family.
Circumstances detain me in this foreign land of my birth,
and while the blood that runs in my veins is that of my Chinese ancestry,
my soul yearns for the true north, strong and free.
Alas, I have come to accept my present location,
an alleyway, long and narrow,
with the pigeons in flight above my head,
the sizzling of oil as the men and women of my hutong produce their everyday meals,
and I realize that I am of them yet not one of them,
I realize I have succeeded by accepting my destiny...