Classic Poem

In all humility sacrifices are made to the east
Banana leaves filled with good food to atone for our sins
Are offered to the grieved souls making their way upstream
Hearkening to the endless sadness and prayers
The wooden mortar carved and polished out of ancient wood
shakes and rolls
Sonorous exhortations shake the mountains and the sea
The dark night, like a giant python, devours
Love and hate, kindness and enmity, increase and destruction
The sacrificial song, weeping and plaintive,
penetrates the cracks of time and space
Striking and ringing the warning and cursing bells hanging at our buttocks
Caressing the fluttering sinners' flags on our shoulders, we run and spin
In that circular dance of torture and bestowal
The spirit whip cracks, tearing through the thick fog, damp
Look afar upon those unpredictably tender lives
Those tender lives as yet unseen
Concealing themselves amid the alders
As inconspicuous as the twining devil's rattan, tough and resilient
Bamboo containers for concealing grief and indignation, say
farewell to the Thunder Girl,
Forced to depart but leaving behind abundance
Amid violent waves of rumor and insult for
The Weaver Girl, the bright adornment of our people's costumes is sunk,
The sad dance suffused with Formosan sweet gum and poignantly
Mysterious, the repeated song and sentimental looks, deep and remote
The wind of forgiveness scatters the floss of the rattan fruit,
Sprouts the unending cycle of birth and death for the Saisiat
Tired and trancelike the parting sorrows, gathered together
Sentimental drunkenness cleanses flaws and meanness
Looking forward to another banquet promised by silvergrass knots
And to willfully display the boundless life of the tribe