The ant's philosophy By Ye Shih-tao
I was not born as a hero but an ordinary Taiwanese. The air I breathe, the food I eat, and the clothing I wear don't come easy so I've been living my life with caution for all my life, daring neither to offend influential officials and the rich nor to scramble for power and profit. I dare not look forward to more than having enough to eat and wear. Not to mention to get involved in serious business like a revolution or even to incite people to revolt. I am, no doubt, a cowardly good-for-nothing. My spineless thinking is in fact miles away from the "wisdom to play safe." To be wise to play safe, I must have the status to "play" in the first place. For instance, I must be somebody in the society or own something like certain real estates. Since I am not qualified in the least, I have not the "wisdom to play safe" but "the tiny ant's philosophy." That is, be on alert all the time and prevent myself from being stomped by the "great men." My lifetime spans two eras, the colonial era of atrocity and the post-war era of chaos. Fortunately with my humble philosophy, hiding and dodging from the great men's stomps, I barely keep my life.
Sadly, out of my lifelong love for literature, I have been scribbling for several decades. There are people who give me the laurel of a writer because they think I can write and translate. Feeling self-satisfied, I write more with more spirit. I know, however, my own limitations; therefore, I dare not write anything betraying my consciousness or contradicting Taiwan people's interests. I ain't no hero or virtuoso. Writing to earn a little money to take care of my old mother and support my family satisfies me very much.
I am sixty-three, senile and feeble. There is no bright prospect for me so I have to stick to my "tiny ant's philosophy." Passing my days without ambitions, I am pleased and satisfied with having neither sickness nor debt.
However, I have no idea what's going on now that for these several years there have been some people attempting to crush me immediately with their stomps. Their cruel and mean wordings that attacked me were invincible. First they accused me of treason against China because I, as a young man, had helped Japanese writers found a magazine and respected them as my mentors. No sooner had they finally stopped smearing me than I was called a traitor of Taiwan. I endured that slander, too. As an ant, it is my fate to be stomped anyway, and I have nothing to say. For the recent one or two years, however, I had been called a stooge of X Party. It seemed to them that I was an intolerable villain. One slander followed by another. These days someone testified that I liked to throw stones at people in precarious situation and flog the misfortunate. They even claimed I should be killed as a fake X-ist.
Being an old ant dragging on his ignoble life, their smears and slanders are my most honorable privileges, which I should accept with joyful smiles. But I don't feel right in my heart. How do I, only an old ant, deserve their honorable libels? They named me a great scoundrel and a devil. This is the flattery that I do not dare to accept.
Certain "progressionists" in Taiwan start cracking down the dissidents before they grasp the power. Their sword is about to behead people like the Japanese colonials'. People of this kind expect literature to serve politics, almost singing the same tune with Japanese ruler in the era of Japanization Movement. Literature depicts politics and portrays the miserable image of the persecuted and the oppressed. That is one of the missions of literature; literature is always the mouthpiece of common people. Nevertheless, literature can never be servile to politics. A writer's participation should mean creating indefatigably and representing the weak in literary work to fight the authorities, uphold justice and truth, and depict the universal and eternal human nature. Through his or her description of familiar land and people, a writer publicizes the unique history and characteristics of his or her nation. This is perfectly justified and should be pursued by Taiwan writers who see this as fundamental writing environment.
Though the old ant is used to be stomped, he has its own right to live. He dislikes the motto, "Taiwan people die silently with their shadows behind them." Isn't it terribly cruel to deprive him of his right to live and let him "die with his shadow behind him?" A lie becomes a truth when it is repeated a thousand times. This is typical of Bolsheviks, which is at odds with Taiwan people's noble quest for freedom and democracy. Low and base as the old ant is, he has the ambition to emulate those better than himself and he knows "human nature" quite well. The old ant has begun digging his tomb because he is afraid of complicating innocent people. He prepares to bury himself, and there is no need for the giants and geniuses to terminate him. It would be better to spare your energy for your enterprise of "revolution."
Translated by Huang Cheng-yuan.
無關任何政治立場, 前面精采的描述傳統麻油菜籽的精神, 一直在思考所謂台灣文化是啥?? 我想, 這篇文章精準. 傳神的傳達了一部分.
因它提及政治, 不禁和政治人物做了個聯想. 回想起總統槍擊笑話, 1星期整, 中槍的人半句不吭, 不是很玄嗎?? 結果, 一開口叫別人被打看看和閉嘴..哈哈...和這文章還真像, 先禮後兵. 這也算是我們個性的一部分吧??
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