Limitless Skies, Endless Journeys

On Receiving the Mihai Eminescu International Writer's Prize 

Mr President, Mr Mayor, members of the “Mihai Eminscu”Europian Foundation, “Mihai Eminscu” International Academy, my brothers and sisters in the community of poets and writers, ladies and gentlemen:

I would like to express my great joy in receiving this great honor from the Mihai EminescuInternational Academy, for myself and for the great and ancient heritage of Mongolian literature.

I was born on the wild eastern steppe, raised as the child of a nomadic herding family. When I was a child, watching the horizon of blue mirages and moving nomadically with a camel caravan, we would travel into the distant limitless skies, and I yearned there for a place of wonder and the unknown, and to discover it and understand it. From this period of my youth, desiring to gain such wonders through the fluttering images within my mind, I was led into the world of poetry. I didn't know how I might do this, but for a long time, and through a gentle rhythm, I guided my own caravan onwards, with its strange melancholy. Limitlss were the skies.

Endless were the journeys. They were what led me on.

The nomadic caravan of Mongolian poetry has come to a stop in Craiova, one of the cradles of European culture, in the birthplace of one of the world's great poets Mihai Eminescu. Mongolians have a tradition of coming out to meet nomadic travelers. Everyone saw the camel caravan coming in from the distance, they boiled up tea and prepared the best food, and they came to welcome the visitors. I have been thinking to mention this excellent custom beneath the European skies. You have all received me, my friends, with great kindness as a poet and nomad of the wild steppe, I am visiting you with a sincere heart, and on this day when I am accepting this most treasured prize, I feel I am looking into that bright distance of my youthful desires.

As a regular Mongolian nomad and poet, I am truly happy that for the past twenty or so years I have not stopped guiding the caravan of Mongolia's valuable literary heritage into the heart of human cvilization. I understand that this award, given to me in the central European city of Craiova, is an acknowledgement of the high esteem given by the world of ancient European culture to Mongolian literature and, more specifically, to our national poetry.

Few people speak the Mongolian language, and despite the historical situation which relate to the difficult paths and the specific ideas of nomadic culture, Mongolian literature has nonetheless overcome the particular obstacles in reaching the west, where very different forms of poetry exist. However, the nomadic caravan moves, gently and hazily, towards the horizon.

And the skies are limitless. And the journeys are endless.

Mongolians have a great historical poetic heritage. Beginning with poems of two lines, they would compose great epics, recited on the road, on journeys as long as twenty or thirty days. The Mongolian language has an extremely rich vocabulary. Mongolian poetry exhibits universal, natural and magical qualities. For me, the Mongolian language is a living inner secret power, it is unillumined. And most importantly, it is contained within poetry. Mongolian people believe not only that poetry dwells solely in the human heart, but that it has a magic and a power which makes beautiful the vessel whoch holds animals, grasses and vegetation, the weather and the landscape. An example of this is  a Gobi poet, the herder Gelegbalsan (1846-1923), wrote a poem, "Asking the Sky For Rain," and according to the legend , it rained, putting an end to the drought

Today, our world is confronting painful difficulties - war, violence, poverty, sickness, national disasters, earthquakes, drought. In such important times, the pure waters which release the human mind and soothe these difficuies, this is poetry. In today's world, in which a technologically driven life is considered superior to the life of the natural world, the poet is able to assist in making the human mind clearer, and in preserving the qualities of brightness.

Over time, human desire holds valuable qualities which become transformed, and this is the expression of true poetry, and I firmly believe that this enriches the precious store of human wisdom.

At the age of fifty-three, the brilliant nineteenth century poet, educator and reincarnate lama Danzanravjaa (1803-1856) wrote in a song, "I myself was my life the world." In his final moments, this great poet, who had opened up the knowledge of the world while finding himself in opposition to it, discovered that the boundless, unknowable, uncatchable world was itself also a poet.

Human beings are today giving ever greater value to those poetic ideas which constitute the world. What we call a person stands at the center of the world and I trust that, by creating the precise thoughts within a person's heart as something shining and bright, the powerful waves of poetry and the magic of words can express our intentions and our focus.

This is what I wrote in one of my own poems:

Having only parts of my dreams,

Tasting in my own poetry the very basis of everything that is mine,

Wishing in your heart to tune the strings of inspiration,

Climbing the chasms of high mountains,

Following impassable paths,

Seeking the eternal song of the essence of love,

            I am coming to you

And the skies are limitless. And the journeys are endless.

I want to mention one line of my own poetry teacher, the great twentieth century Mongolian poet B.Yavuuhulan. In one of his poems, he expressed the movement from before the time of Mongolian poetry into his own work. He said, "My verse, my horse, we both need the field of the world. I am happy that I have been able to pass on the wishes of this great poet, my teacher.

As a twenty-first century poet and nomad, my luggage is the best of the entire great heritage of Mongolian poetic history. I will place in the library of the Mihai Eminescu Academy a pack full of translations, the best of Mongolian poetry and, my loving and determined heart weary, I would ask you to share them with one another.

May the light shine ever brighter upon the shadows of the human world, through the magic power of poetry!

Thank you for your kind attention.

16 September 2014
Craiova