To the Oak Tree

致橡树

To the Oak Tree                                                   

作者：舒婷

Johanna Yueh 英文修改版

If I love you --

I will never be a clinging trumpet creeper

Using your high boughs

to show off my height

If I love you --

I will never be a spoony bird

Repeating a monotonous song

for green shade

Or be a spring

Bringing cool solace all year long

Or be a steep peak

Increasing your stature,

Reflecting your eminence

Even the sunlight

Even the spring rain

No, all these are not enough

I must be a ceiba tree beside you

Be the image of a tree

standing together with you

Our roots, entwined underground

Our leaves, touching in the clouds

With each gust of wind

We greet each other

But nobody

Can understand our words

To the Oak Tree

You'll have your copper branches

and iron trunk

Like knives, like swords, like halberds, too

I'll have my crimson flowers

Like heavy sighs

And valiant torches

We'll share cold spells,

storms and thunder

We'll share mists, hazes and rainbows

Seemingly always apart

But also forever interdependent

Only this can be great love

The loyalty is here

Love --

I love not only your strapping stature

But also your firm stand,

the earth beneath you