The Ocean Knows海知道

Text by Hui Guniang 輝姑娘

Translation by Xu Chaolan 許超嵐

The Ocean Knows
海知道

Text by Hui Guniang 輝姑娘

Translation by Xu Chaolan 許超嵐

32 June 2017

Ionce went diving in Sabah, a small state in Malaysia. Wet and tired,isat on the beach with my diving instructor, with the waves of the Pacifc Ocean lapping at our ankles. As we sat, he spoke sadly of a patch of dying coral he’d found. Someone had taken a piece from the whole, he told me, and vulnerable coral couldn’t survive being incomplete. Even after having received plenty of dissuasions and warnings, a few visitors still could not resist their desire to touch coral. Only by touching or in some cases taking some coral would they feel like “I came,isaw,iconquered.”

Later that day we sat by the shore staring out at the sunrise. In silence, he lifted his hand and scrawled “I am here” on the sand. We watched the words wash away beneath the waves. He looked up at me, “Isn’t that enough? Nothing else needs to be done to demonstrate thatihave been here. The ocean knows, and that’s all that matters. ”

(FromWomen,February 2017)

在沙巴潛水時，一位潛水教練很難過地對我說，昨天他發現一片正在死去的珊瑚。我問他珊瑚為什么會死去，他說因為珊瑚很脆弱，只要采下一小塊，很可能一大片珊瑚就都會死去。即使再三勸誡或警告，還是會有少數游客忍不住動手去觸碰那些珊瑚。

每一個人都覺得，只有撫摸或獲得那些珊瑚，才會有“我來過，我看到過”的滿足感。

彼時，我們坐在岸邊看日落，他隨手在沙灘上寫下“我在這里”。我們一起看著這行字被海浪吞沒，沙灘恢復平坦。他抬起頭來看我：“這樣不就很好嗎？我不需要做任何事證明自己曾經在這里，海知道，就夠了。”

（摘自《婦女》 2017年第2期）