Sea Fog

A poem:

When the fishing boat sails across the sea;

When the petrel soars above the sea;

When the sun fades from sight……

Fog,

slowly spreads over the sea,

the fishing boat can’t help but lose its way,

    aimlessly searching for a path,

the petrel circles in the sky,

    searching for a reef to land on;

Fog,

the smell of the sea fills the mind,

making you more and more restless,

the fishing boat slowly comes to a stop,

    calm, calm, the sea has fallen asleep,

the petrel finds a reef,

    she stops, and slowly drifts into dreams on the calm sea……

“Whoosh” “whoosh,” the waves slap the fishing boat;

“Whoosh” “whoosh,” the waves strike the reef;

Suddenly the fishing boat moves, the fishing boat sails, threading through the sea fog.

The petrel’s wings are soaked, she falls into the sea,

yet she bravely takes off again to look for another,

—a tall reef.

The fog seems to have fallen for the sea,

                unwilling to part again.

The fishing boat looks for its home;

                the petrel looks for that reef to land on.

The next day,

the fishing boat comes to the shore,

and out steps an old Red Army veteran,

he looks east toward the sunrise, thinking about something,

in the afternoon he finds something on the shore,

—a petrel, a dead petrel.

One of her wings is gone,

the old Red Army veteran buries her by the sea,

letting her look out at the sea,

and somewhere on the sea,

—the fog has not yet lifted.

Written by Jianfeng Yiyu, November 2008

This is a poem I wrote at the end of ‘08. That was a long time ago, but I was still dreaming of changing my country back then!