<p class="ql-block">《From Dust to Dust》</p><p class="ql-block">2015</p><p class="ql-block">-</p><p class="ql-block">Twelve labors I once endured—</p><p class="ql-block">each one left me exhausted.</p><p class="ql-block">A mortal man was never meant to be a demigod—</p><p class="ql-block">not before me, and never after.</p><p class="ql-block">Do not hope he be like Hercules,</p><p class="ql-block">who, with bare hands,</p><p class="ql-block">fought and killed the Nemean lion,</p><p class="ql-block">its hide unpierceable,</p><p class="ql-block">its jaws built for death.</p><p class="ql-block">They say nothing was a match for him.</p><p class="ql-block">But perhaps that’s all just myth—</p><p class="ql-block">a load of dust and pride.</p><p class="ql-block">Now I long only for a simple life,</p><p class="ql-block">on the quiet shore of an island beyond the sea.</p><p class="ql-block">Let me live out the rest of my days in solitude.</p><p class="ql-block">Civilization has grown too civilized</p><p class="ql-block">for me to carry.</p><p class="ql-block">Honor, once a crown,</p><p class="ql-block">has become too heavy to wear.</p><p class="ql-block">They say man can build paradise on earth—</p><p class="ql-block">but perhaps all we need</p><p class="ql-block">is a solitary place,</p><p class="ql-block">far from the bustle and the noise.</p><p class="ql-block">Oh, God is generous with hints,</p><p class="ql-block">but stingy with specifics.</p><p class="ql-block">So all I have is a guess.</p><p class="ql-block">Kingdoms are won by armies.</p><p class="ql-block">Empires are forged through alliances.</p><p class="ql-block">But life—life is lived by the soul.</p><p class="ql-block">And a soul that wants nothing</p><p class="ql-block">has no price.</p><p class="ql-block">A man consumed by ambition</p><p class="ql-block">is tempted to think himself a god.</p><p class="ql-block">But he is not.</p><p class="ql-block">He is mortal.</p><p class="ql-block">Still…</p><p class="ql-block">something has haunted me for a while now—</p><p class="ql-block">a legend,</p><p class="ql-block">or the truth that lies behind one.</p><p class="ql-block">Return to the man that he is.</p><p class="ql-block">Forget the deeds he performed.</p><p class="ql-block">Forget the labors he completed.</p><p class="ql-block">None of it truly matters.</p><p class="ql-block">What matters</p><p class="ql-block">is a life lived with what he is.</p><p class="ql-block">From dust the soul came.</p><p class="ql-block">To dust it shall return.</p>