Soñando despierto

Realidad, ojos abiertos,
sueño, ojos cerrados,
el sueño en realidad,
la realidad en sueño,
el sueño…
la realidad…
el sueño, ojos abiertos,
realidad, ojos cerrados,
abiertos y cerrados,
realidad y sueño,
un finito sin fin.

Al chifa de mis recuerdos

El viernes caminando por las calles de siempre,
vi un letrero de se vende.
Quedé paralizado, frío, acongojado.
El chifa de la esquina había cerrado.
Cualquiera pensaría, «bah, un chifa cualquiera»
y quién sabe, tal vez lo era,
de sabor normal, ni bueno, ni malo,
tampoco regular.
Un chifa cualquiera, con sabor a recuerdos.
Cuando nos mudamos a esta nueva zona,
ya estaba ahí, en la misma esquina,
esposos, abuela y una bebé,
con acento de extranjero recién llegado.
Comimos ahí una vez, y la cercanía mas que el sabor,
nos hacía volver, una y otra, una y otra vez.
Más de 20 años han pasado, muchas historias han pasado,
nosotros ahora somos adultos, crecimos y nos multiplicamos,
peleamos, discutimos, nos alegramos, conversando en el local.
En verano, una gaseosa helada, en invierno, una sopa caliente.
No había mes que no fuéramos una vez, era parte de nuestras vidas,
una rutina, tan importante como feliz.
Ellos también cambiaron, la abuela, ya no apareció;
la bebé, se hizo dos; y ahora señoritas, las veíamos crecer.
Vimos el esfuerzo que tenían, el empeño que pusieron.
De un chifa común de barrio, lo convirtieron en un chifa más elegante,
nada ostentoso, pero con un sentido de avance, de no quedarse atrás.

Luego vino la pandemia, y tuvieron que cerrar. Meses las puertas cerradas,
meses con el temor que ya no hubiera más.
Mas abrieron, con miedo primero, luego con dedicación.
A pesar de la nueva competencia, tenía clientes fieles, no solo nosotros,
todos los que ahí tenemos historia,
y luego volvieron a cerrar. Vacaciones las llamaron.
Esperamos un mes, dos, tres.
El letrero de vacaciones, con mensajes de los clientes,
«vuelvan», «los extraño», «quiero mi chifa»
y el viernes lo vi. Ya no estaba el letrero de vacaciones.
Mas un frío y horrible letrero, «se vende».

Espero que estén bien, espero que sean felices con su decisión,
yo solo les puedo escribir una palabras,
mientras recuerdo, las anécdotas de chifa,
que mucha historia se llevó.
Suerte a la Amiguita, a sus hijas y el señor,
siempre recordaré el chifa,
con tantos recuerdos y algo de sabor.

Etimología

Hay palabras nuevas,
hay palabras viejas,
palabras que cambian,
tanto sonido, grafía y significado,
mas estas no cambian por cambiar
hay una lucha,
de esas que jamás se escriben las batallas
solo se sabe el resultado a través del tiempo,
de aquellas que no lo harán,
de aquellas cuyo significado real, se perderá,
aquellas que con el tiempo, malditas serán.
¿Cuáles son estás?
Solo el futuro lo sabrá.

98 Taiji I

Meng Shang was being training with the City Lord himself, and I entered his meditation room. I also asked if he could buy many cheap artifacts with the money I received, I didn’t care about how cheap they were, but the nature of their energy. One half had to be yang attributes and the other one yin one. He was surprised by the request but he did it, he even gave me some not so cheap artifacts from his own vault.

When he send me the artifacts, they were like a little mountain, not even in my house we had so much trinkets like this; some were so beautiful that it was a shame what their purpose was.

“First it’s time for you to ascend to the quasi-divine realm, then I will help you to complete the second stage of Using demons and gods alike. When we complete that step, you will be different of most of cultivators. Some changes you will notice right away, but other you will have to wait. But for now, it’s time for you to rise up.”

First I had to absorb all the yin and yang of the artifacts. That took me some days, but when I finally did it, my body felt like a mess. Both were trying to fight each other in my body and were destroying most of my inner self. Only the soul tree was save. “Master is this really necessary?” She saw me but didn’t say anything about that, only that it was time to me to stop that fight.

“Me? —I asked shocked— Master I don’t know how to do it. It too much for me to handle it.”

“Then you will die” was the only answer that she said.

I knew that she was telling the truth. So I entered my inner self and saw the disaster that that was me. How could I let them stop fighting? It seemed impossible. “Sit down and contemplate the beauty of the destruction —my Master said—, feel it, and think about it.”

I sat down and saw. The spectacle was indeed amazing. Those two forces were struggling to win, but neither could do it. It was like a dance of fires. But why did they had to fight? Especially in me? I have already absorb both types in my body, but that time it was with the help of my Master, it was difficult, but it had an order. This time it was like fighting nature, it was impossible. Why do they have to fight?

Both had equal strength and both were destroying my body. Why they had to do this? Why they couldn’t be channeled as before. It’s true that my Master helped me before, but I also had experience with them, but it seemed pointless to try it.. “Master, I…”

“Don’t say it. Don’t dare to say it —she said quite angry—. Analyze the destruction, think. It’s not the first time you do this, but this time your life is in jeopardy. I will not help you. This is only something that only you could do it. Think!”

It was not my first time doing it? What she was talking about? I vomited blood. The fighting was now affecting also my life. I was scared and I knew that she wouldn’t help me. I was afraid to die, and tried to analyze what I was seeing, but I didn’t understand anything. I only knew that I was frightened and in that moment I understood what she was talking about. This sensation of fear, it’s something that I had felt before, the first time I meditated in the dark place of my inner self. That’s what I had to do, but I didn’t know how.

I kept seeing the destruction, now I began to feel the pain of my body. What I had to do? At that time when I realized who I was, I could change the flow of my vital qi, but that was easy because it was part of me. These forces were not, they were strangers in my body.

I tried to use my river qi to guide them to the tree, but the river began to been absorbed by the forces. They began to suck all the river and in a few minutes it would be dry and I would be death. What could I do? I thought on a stupid solution. If they were absorbing my qi, why I couldn’t try to absorve them.

I did it, but only a little and it was not enough, but I least now I knew that It was possible. When the soul tree began absorb the bits of energy it began to bright. It didn’t do anything more, and both forces keep struggling each other while killing me.

I knew that the techniques my Master had teach me, had the power to control it, and I knew that I couldn’t do it because of myself. What was stopping me? Why I couldn’t absorb enough of both energies? My eyes began to have tears of blood, and the pain began to be higher each minute.

“You know who you are, but know you have to discover what you are.” said my Master with a worried face. She had given me clues the whole process but I couldn’t understand it. Last time I discovered part of who I was, but what I was? No, that never occurred to me.

I was a human, a cultivator, but that was who I was. What I was had to be different. I didn’t understood the question, I was what? An animal? I saw again my soul tree, and began to think about it. What was exactly the soul tree? It was part of me, but what exactly it was? And why it needed to grow? It absorbed yin and yang, and made possible to my vital qi run as mighty as it was now.

The tree was the last piece of the clue, but it was difficult to deciphering. Yin, yang, qi and the soul tree, what was there connection?

I was really lost.

A esa institución educativa

¡Oh, gran institución del saber!
De nombre admirable,
de hombre respetable,
mas tú eres detestable.

Si alguien quiere aprender,
la teoría de la relatividad, saber,
solo tiene que llevar,
un curso y verán,
como 6 meses, un año se convertirán,
el tiempo, expertos en ralentizar.

¡Cómo quisiera hablar!
¡Todo mi hígado soltar!
Mas por ahora a callar,
pronto todo va a terminar,
y yo, ya podré desahogar.

97 The inheritor

The question froze Meng Shang for a second before he began to cry. The City Lord was sensing that something was wrong and asked what happened to him. Meng Shang told him everything, until the last detail. The face of the City Lord changed colors multiple times, from white, to purple and finally red. He lost it and released a killing intent that was drowning us. It was the first time I felt something like this.

Many guards and even the vice City Lord came to the room. I could see that most of them was also having problems breathing. Only the vice City Lord could have the resistance to asked him what happened. After that, and seeing how his killing intent was damaging us, he lowered it. “Today I have heard something that never in my life I would think I would happen. Today is a sad day, my friend was killed, and I was not there to protect him. Today I will mourn him, later… blood will rain, women will cry, and children will be orphans.”

His word frozen my blood, but Meng Shang was smiling. That smile was not normal, it was creepy, like someone who had lost any reason. I took his hand and released some of my vital qi. He was surprised at first, but then became normal. He felt my intentions, and thanked me.

“Meng Shang —said the City Lord—, I will ask you a question for everybody to hear, so answer what your heart desires. What do you want? Do you want for me to take revenge in your father’s honor or you want to be the avenger? I will be fine which you chose, but the blood of my brother and my sister wild be pay.”

Meng’er thought about it for a moment. “City Lord —he cupped his fist while talking—, the most I want is to avenge the death of my parents. I want to kill the perpetrator with my own hands. Would you help me to do that?”

The City Lord laughed. “Yes! That’s how a cultivator have to act! You have cut ties with that family and you even have a sworn brother. You are making a family of your own. I will give you techniques and resources that nobody in this city has. In a few months you vengeance will be done and I will help you do that. Everything this city has is yours, because in this moment I will proclaim that Meng Shang, son of my sworn brother Meng Dan, will be adopted as my own son. He will be the Young Master of this city, and only the vice City Lord and I will be above him, until it’s time for him to take my position.”

The vice City lord tried to say something, but the look of the City Lord was enough to stopped it. Much, much later, he told me that he was preoccupied of the ramifications of that edict, but the City Lord was someone that loved his brother as his own blood. He wouldn’t care of any problems that this would arouse, and if anything happened, he would simply crushed it. That’s why he stopped.

Soon the news run in all the city, and many important people wanted to see the adopted son of the City Lord, but all of them were denied. They were explained that he was cultivating in that moment and nobody had to interrupt his training. So these people only could return to his manors. And that’s the beginning of how Meng Shang become one of the most powerful men in the world.