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| James Tian |
Tree, Grass, and Ants
By James Tian
A tree had its roots gnawed several times by ants,
Yet no matter how united the ants’ nature,
In the end, they still suffered from being too small in size.
They never managed to gnaw away the tree’s roots completely.
Each time, they carried the goal,
Of sacrificing this tree to satisfy their own lives.
But their wish never came true.
The tree always managed to recover,
Growing green branches again, repairing its roots—
Of course, for the sake of its own life…
In principle,
Neither the tree nor the ants were wrong!
The ants aren’t foolish.
They don’t only gnaw at the tree’s roots;
They also chew on the roots of other plants,
Such as grass.
Many small blades of grass died,
Because their roots were eaten bare.
And of course,
The way to mourn them was for the wind to sing a dirge.
Yet it was to no avail—
The dead are dead,
And can never live again.
At last, the tree thought:
Merely dealing with each band of ants as they arrived wasn’t enough.
This endless cycle,
Was both tiresome and unresolved.
So it began to strike back—
Digging hard into the soil, clawing up the sand,
Trying to find the ants’ old nests,
And wipe them out.
Its purpose was to end the matter once and for all,
To prevent the tragedy from repeating…
The tree’s roots had been gnawed many times,
And the wind always sang its elegies.
The grass’s roots had been gnawed many times,
And the wind also always sang its elegies.
But the tree’s act of solving the problem this way,
Brought not only the wind’s condemnation.
They said the tree was too cruel,
That it insulted the noble word “life”.
So they began to isolate the tree,
Even gathering around it in protest.
The soil, too, has its limits.
Too many plants crowded around the tree,
And the nutrients were soon depleted.
The great tree’s roots were attacked by ants on one side,
And on the other, suffocated by lack of nourishment…
At last, one day,
The tree fell!
Not because the ants had gnawed it to death,
But because it was killed
By those very “living beings” that were also plants…
How could the tree’s dead roots satisfy the ants’ lives?
So after the tree died,
The ants turned to gnawing the roots of other plants.
The other plants also wanted to resist,
But each time they tried,
The image of the tree being protested against arose before them.
In fear of being abandoned by morality,
They kept silent,
While hurriedly debating whether there was a way—
Both to avoid death,
And escape condemnation…
They were too slow.
In the end, the ants gnawed them all to death.
Lacking food,
The ants complained about how poor this place was,
And with resentment, left this land…
The problem was solved!
But only when all resistance and condemnation had perished,
Leaving behind nothing but the word “survival”,
Which was still being debated—
As to whether it was right or wrong…
I’ve forgotten which dreamer once said this—
To satisfy the claims of the mind,
One must give up the morality of the body.
It seems that whoever said it,
Must also have seen this story,
For they spoke with such precision and care.
I only worried about where the ants would go,
Whether their new home,
Could offer them a more nourishing life.
As for the wind—
It doesn’t matter.
It has no roots,
Not even a body,
So it fears no gnawing,
Only drifting freely with its mood,
Freely singing its elegies—
And that counts as its life…
