Tu Miao-yi [Taiwan]

 

I am a Taiwanese poet  

I am a humble poet
As humble as a blade of grass
The grass on the land has a name
Thorns prick the skin
But it has a name
And I have a name too, Taiwan
 
I am a Taiwanese poet
At every international poetry festival
I read aloud in my beautiful mother tongue, Taiwanese
Telling the stories of Taiwan's joys and sorrows
Please do not change my country's name
If I cannot attend your magnificent literary event
No matter how splendid and alluring the laurel wreath are
 
If I read aloud in Taiwanese
And you feel it is beautiful language
Please applaud me
Yes, I await the world's friendly response
In the name of my beloved Taiwan
This is my humble wish
Though humble, I persist
Even the most splendid literary laurel wreath
If it cannot be in the name of my nation, Taiwan
It is meaningless to me
If one day I die
On my tombstone only need one line:
Here lay a Taiwanese poet
 

A Cave  
 
By a dark, dingy cave,
A soldier with a pistol stared at me.
On a shaded, shadowy bed plank,
A Japanese military officer pressed my legs.
From the dull, dim lower part of my body,
What I detested was that I had no country
 
A dark, dingy society
Bore nothing but an accusation with vilification.*
A shaded, shadowy memory
Allowed a natural child was killed by malaria
A dull, dim cavity
Led to nothing but a fate without end.
What I detested was that in my body existed
for no reason a cavity
To allow men to invade my by chance.

(translated by Hsueh-Ming Liao)
 

They Are Cutting Across the River of Life   
 
The teacher said,
“One day you, the daughter of the Phoenix City,
would leave Hú-siâⁿ for traveling,
As a phoenix hovering.
Don’t sow the corner of the garden with beautiful flowers;
Transform, instead, yourself into a precursor of plant,
And sow the seeds in the places visible to you.”
 
Mom said,
“One day you would have your own man,
Who would be aware of how to love you,
And you could bear children and rear them with him;
If he were in want of the awareness of how to love you,
Just go away and leave feelings behind
And bring your heart back here.
Perhaps my garden is not big enough,
Yet a corner, at least, has been reserved specifically for you
Where the seed that would be sown by you is in my sight.”
 
The man said,
“One day you would find out all that
She didn’t do so much as you around the house;
She didn’t have such attraction as you by appearance;
She didn’t concern me as you do all the time;
But she did emerge just like a rainbow by chance.
Why did you leave me alone with what I’ve expected
Without leaving me a single seed
That I could have buried in the place I’d given you?”
 
I say,
“One day I realized that
I had traveled around the world in earnest.
I loved my husband along with all he had;
I ignored the likely conflicts with other woman mainly
for the broken marriage;
I had no desire to go back to the Mom’s desolate garden.
I longed, instead, to circle with a single seed in the air,
Watching whales enjoying in the blue, blue deeps
And flowers glooming on the green, green, lands in spring,
While the joyful laughter was reaching my ears.
Along with the beads of sweat from diligent women
I buried the single seed down where my visibility
was available to them.
 
The seeds are growing into the green sprout in effort;
They are cutting across the river of life.
 

*Hú-siâ^n: the ancient name of Tainan city

(translated by Hsuen_Ming Liao)

(2007 Lin Rong-San Literary Award in Modern Poetry)

 
 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Tu Miao-yi (b. 1961) is a poet, writer, editor, translator and painter. She was a literature page editor of several newspapers for 8 years. She obtained her BT degree in Chinese literature from National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan then went to Dharma Realm Buddhist University, USA for her advanced study . She participated the International Poetry Festival in Chile, Taiwan, Bolivia and Dhaka International Poets Summit, Colombia & Ecuador. She was the prize winner in poetry of several literature awards, such as “Takao Literary Award”, “Taipei Literary Award”, “Lin Rong-San Literary Award”, “Nan-ying Literary Award”, “Yeh Hong Women’s Poetry Prize” etc. Her essay published “Ground is still the Garden” (2006) and won the first prize of Tainan Literary Award (2007). She won the first prize of Wu Cho-liu Literary Award for Story Story (2011). She received the Kataka Literary Award.(Bangardesh, 2018); The International Comunicantion of Culture (Ecuador, 2022). Her Taiwanese  poetry collection book ”Yearning” (2016). Her Mandarin/English bilingual poetry collection book “The Epiphany of Feet”( 2018). Her short stories collection book “The Black Ghost” (2019 )and translated in Spanish ( Spain  2023). Part of her poems translated in 14 languages and include to Anthology of the World Poets.. Her poetry book “Love, A Forever Impenetrable Forest” translated in Spanish and Arabic (Ecuador & Egypt, 2023). Her short stories collection book translated in English “Ar Wur”( Taiwan, 2026).

 

Emanated a stinging invasion that saddened me.

That could protect me at the age of thirteen.