Translated from Chinese by Annie Sheng

I traveled eight and a half months to finally pay a visit to
Earth’s brother, separated and scattered a distance away
Red, indifferent, subdued
an arid countenance I’ve never came across before
Dear brother—you're nothing like what I’ve imagined
There are no monkey faces, subterranean levels of pyramids, artificial canals
nor fingerprints, traces remaining from any intelligent life
not even a teardrop:
"How could Earth have such a reclusive, idiotic relative?"
Everyone harbors the same question in their hearts:
Has it not yet undergone evolution
or has it already reached Nirvana—?
The desolate chains of mountains and valleys
meteor craters like dense pockmarks serve to
record time from the birth of the universe to the present
And, from the depths of the vacuum, silently projecting
a ceaseless echo of a timeless invitation.
—Why not join me in meditation?
From primates
to plants, to minerals
to dust, to light
to cycles, to
silence…

(just like what mankind sees peering at the surface of Mars)