Spring is here
spring in Lhasa
Every afternoon, ruined valleys
will stir sandstorms
Butter lamps from the Jokhang
blaze in our hands every day
Spring is here
spring in Lhasa
Every day, the surrounding barracks
will sound the bugle a few times
My old mother
circumambulates every day around the Potala
O, spring in Lhasa
spring in Lhasa . . .
Just like this, spring is over one by one
Losar (Tibetan New Year) 2004, Lhasa
♦
Excerpted from Ocean, as Much as Rain: Stories, Lyrical Prose, and Poems from Tibet by Tsering Woeser, edited and translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain with Dechen Pemba, Duke University Press, 2026. Copyright Tsering Woeser, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, and Dechen Pemba, 2026.
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