In this narrated essay and six-poem sequence, acclaimed translator and poet David Hinton finds an uncannily literal translation of modern science’s “space-time” in yü chou—one of ancient China’s most foundational cosmological concepts. He invites us to contemplate the fabric of time and space as a kind of primordial breath, drawing on the ideograms for yü chou to show that time is not a metaphysical river moving past, but an all-encompassing present that renders the Cosmos alive. An epilogue of poems delivers us into an elemental world where time is woven with the sacred. 

Read the essay and poems. 

Discover more stories from our latest print edition, Volume 5: Time. 

Artwork by Studio Airport.

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