Etymology of Me as a Human: a Bilinguacultural Poem
yuan changming
1/ Denotations of I vs 我
The first person singular pronoun, or this very
Writing subject in English is I, an only-letter
Word, standing upright like a pole, always
Capitalized, but in Chinese, it is written with
Seven lucky strokes as 我, with at least 108
Variations, all of which can be the object case
At the same time.
Originally, it’s formed from
The character 找, meaning ‘pursuing’, with one
Stroke added on the top, which may well stand for
Anything you would like to have, such as money
Power, fame, sex, food, or nothing if you prove
Yourself to be a Buddhist practitioner inside out
2/ Connotations of Human & 人
Since I am a direct descendant of Homo Erectus, let me stand
Straight as a human/人, rather than kneel down like a slave
When two humans walk side by side, why to coerce
One into obeying the other as if fated to follow/从?
Since three humans can live together, do we really need
A boss, a ruler or a tyrant on top of us all as a group/众?
Given all the freedom I was born with, why, just
Why cage me within walls like a prisoner/囚？
