Sorrow and Search

      Wandering Folks
             ( II )

 

Days and nights passed by foolishly and boringly,

Soon my hair were balding, teeth were shaky.

When the retiring time arrived, wage stopped,

my pocket was empty, stomach was hungry.

The only place I could rely on was my son’s.

So I went to him rather brazenly, very sorry.

Looking back at my old countries,

I was both very happy and very worried.

The straggler endeavored and strived,

soon became a big creditor and world power.

Because of discords and serious struggles,

the forward one became laggard and poorer.

Old countries and new country formed a triangle,

openly competed and secretly contended.

Openly they talked about faithful friendship,

seemingly they were full of compassion.

Secretly they all have poisonous plans,

much like some serpents and scorpions.

I’d like to see my mother countries

can be unified together as one nation.

We were originally brothers or a family,  

shared the same ancestry and civilization.

Reconciliation can be constructive.

Confrontation can be destructive.

How could we cook the bean

by burning the stalk of bean?

No matter whether two or three countries,

all must be cooperative and harmonious.

Cooperation and harmony

can bring every party victory and prosperity.

Confrontation and hostility

can bring every party injury and poverty.

The most I do not want to see is war.

Once the war unfortunately happens,

three sides will lose, no one will win.

Three countries all have my relatives.

When relatives fight and kill each other,

it will double the hurt, multiply the pain. 

An old man’s wisdom would wane.

His emotion would always worry;

over people, over country, over world,

over everything, everywhere, every day.

He likes to hear young men laughing,

fears to see old men and kids are blubbery.

An old man’s belly would be bulgy,

so he would be much broad-minded,

be optimistic about things of all kinds.

Everything is reasonable and hopeful.

Everybody is beautiful and improvable.

All men can be good men, nice and kind.

No matter you live domestically or overseas,

we are actually all fellow villagers.

Whether you live far apart or near each other, 

we are actually all close neighbors.

Keeping our moral standards and friendly hearts,

we all can be happy lodgers in our small world.

07/12/2014