Finally Comes The White Peacock Poem by Denis Mair

Nature used trace metals and rare earths
Held their toxins safe in keratin outgrowths
Lined up as pigments on a refractive surface
Collided light waves to give a shimmer
Varied their hues to depict an eyespot
Key to fit the template in a peahen's eye
But this is a key to turn the lock further
To lock them into more birth-death cycles
Into entwinements down through generations
Beauty grows as ever from workings of will
And will in the end surrenders to beauty
Now along comes this pure-white one
Ghost of will still willing
Says...Look to the core beyond adornment
See how it adorns me all the more!
..........


Here is a Chinese version of my poem, translated by Mr. Wang Hao:

"终于，白孔雀来了"

大自然使用了稀有金属和稀土
将其毒素纳入角质蛋白，生长到体外
让它们作为颜料排列在一个折射光线的表面上
并让光束折射成幽深的闪烁，让斑斓的色彩绘成
一只翎眼
这是一把开启母孔雀眼孔的钥匙，但这钥匙的作用
是把锁芯拧得更紧
把它们牢牢锁进一重又一重的生死轮
会让它们纠缠着，一代一代地传下去
美丽一如既往地从意志的作用中生发出来
但意志力最终要降伏于美丽
这时一路走来这纯白的一只意志的幽灵
仍然愿意诉说- - 那装饰之下的内核
你看它，即便此刻，还在装饰我

王浩译