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Poem

Bai Hua

Fish

The bewildering fish does not know how to sing 
From silence on to silence it swims 

Needs it has, and the need to speak 
Instead, blind and blank, it stares at a rock 

To endure is a power so precise in it 
Physical decline hurries it along the road of kindness 

What can it be? An image of a people 
Or the act of a soundless absorption? 

The face of Blame is turned towards Shadow 
The reticence of Death is turned towards Error 

A metaphor born to explain some fact: 
The throat an ambiguous pain gives rise to

<魚>

<魚>

難以理解的魚不會歌唱
從寂靜游進寂靜

需要東西、需要說話
但卻盲目地看著一塊石頭

忍受的力量太精確
衰老催它走上仁慈的道路

它是什麼?一個種族的形象
或一個無聲的投入的動作

埋怨的臉向陰影
死亡的沉默向錯誤

出生為了說明一件事的譬喻
那源於曖昧的痛苦的咽喉
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Fish

The bewildering fish does not know how to sing 
From silence on to silence it swims 

Needs it has, and the need to speak 
Instead, blind and blank, it stares at a rock 

To endure is a power so precise in it 
Physical decline hurries it along the road of kindness 

What can it be? An image of a people 
Or the act of a soundless absorption? 

The face of Blame is turned towards Shadow 
The reticence of Death is turned towards Error 

A metaphor born to explain some fact: 
The throat an ambiguous pain gives rise to

Fish

The bewildering fish does not know how to sing 
From silence on to silence it swims 

Needs it has, and the need to speak 
Instead, blind and blank, it stares at a rock 

To endure is a power so precise in it 
Physical decline hurries it along the road of kindness 

What can it be? An image of a people 
Or the act of a soundless absorption? 

The face of Blame is turned towards Shadow 
The reticence of Death is turned towards Error 

A metaphor born to explain some fact: 
The throat an ambiguous pain gives rise to
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