There was something so profound I read a few days back.. “Freedom… is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey” This is a line from Chinese American poet Bei Dao’s poem Accomplices.

I read the line in Ocean Vuong’s debut novel from 2019 “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

I heard Ocean Vuong speak at NPR’s Fresh Air a few months back where he was talking about his latest book ‘The Emperor of Gladness’. I loved the conversation and immediately put a hold on his books at my library and got his debut novel a few days back and started reading. Still waiting for his new book.

The debut novel book is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mom. The life of the son called little dog mirrors that of Ocean Vuong. It is poetic, beautiful, empathetic, self reflective, searching. It touches you not just because of the lines that seem to be verses at times, but also the way it spreads through the various forms. letters, memoir, novel.

Another interesting sentence that touched me deep is “What is a country, but a life sentence?” That small sentence has so much packed into it that many of us could travel and see our whole life in it… “What is a country, but a life sentence?”…. Country…

I decided to read more of Bei Dao and yesterday I came home from work and took his most famous poem “The Answer” and translated it to malayalam for my podcast.

‘The Answer’ was written after the 1976 Tiananmen Square incident that Bei Dao had also participated in. This poem considered by some to be as iconic as Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the wind”

This poem was considered to be an inspiration for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Bei Dao was stateless from 1989 to 2009 when he became a US citizen. I am sharing The Answer here just so you can read how beautiful profound and relevant it is even today.

The Answer

Debasement is the password of the base,
Nobility the epitaph of the noble.
See how the gilded sky is covered
With the drifting twisted shadows of the dead.

The Ice Age is over now,
Why is there ice everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has been discovered,
Why do a thousand sails contest the Dead Sea?

I came into this world
Bringing only paper, rope, a shadow,
To proclaim before the judgment
The voice that has been judged:

Let me tell you, world,
I—do—not—believe!
If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet,
Count me as number thousand and one.

I don’t believe the sky is blue;
I don’t believe in thunder’s echoes;
I don’t believe that dreams are false;
I don’t believe that death has no revenge.

If the sea is destined to breach the dikes
Let all the brackish water pour into my heart;
If the land is destined to rise
Let humanity choose a peak for existence again.

A new conjunction and glimmering stars
Adorn the unobstructed sky now;
They are the pictographs from five thousand years.
They are the watchful eyes of future generations.

-Bei Dao-