Tenn Nga-I, Freelancer

Our Forebears’ Footsteps

(Translated by Tenn Nga-I)

Footprints are bearers of history

Bridging past and future

A living record, a continuum of life 

A long line of masterworks, one after another

Enriching our cultural spirit

Footprints are links in a long trajectory

Guiding us as we stride into the future

Our forebears’ paths, clear and unchanging

Our predecessors’ silhouettes, their legacies

Stamped in their footprints, silently singing

In eternal dialogue with our souls 

The Hakka people revere their ancestral origins and family traditions, a spirit embodied in everyday activities, e.g. offering sacrifices to ancestors, worshipping traditional Hakka deities, naming dwellings after ancestral homelands in China, erecting altars in homes. As a Hakka proverb puts it, “Better to sell ancestral lands than to forget ancestral teachings.” The adage conveys Hakka descendants’ veneration of traditional wisdom and culture, a sentiment that is expanded to the construction of collective memory.

What is history? Poet Ye Risong provides an example, likening history to “footprints of our forebears.” In the Hakka language, “footprint” (腳印 giog iang) may also be expressed as “foot-track” (腳跡 giog jiag) or “footprint track” (腳印跡 giog iang jiag). Formerly, most Hakka farmers worked barefoot, leaving trails of parallel footprints in muddy fields and paddies, testament to their diligence. Footprint imagery runs through Ye’s poem; in tandem with related phrases – “links in a long trajectory,” “stride into the future,” and “one after another” – the images form a series of crisscrossing paths, revealing history’s temporality and spatiality. 

History includes all processes of survival, struggle, and evolution; it is an “a living record, a continuum of life,” creating “a long line of masterworks.” In most people’s minds, “history” is simply the recording of past events and the passing on of traditions. But Ye Risong points out that history has both creative and aesthetic aspects. By means of each generation’s diligence and accumulated experience, humanity constantly breaks through old models, establishing new milestones and opening new vistas. The fruits of these efforts can compared to works of art or literature, products of inspiration.

Furthermore, history links the past, present, and future. When we plumb history’s depths, it not only aids us in understanding the past, further enriching our perceptions of life, but also reminds us to absorb our predecessors’ lessons and reflect on the moment at hand. In this way, we can more fully and firmly become part of and determine the present. When seen from this perspective, history reveals to us the future, our predecessors’ footsteps an eternal “guide,” inspiring us to continue to advance toward a more ideal vision of the future. As the poem’s first line points out, footprints are bearers of history, and those who follow in the footsteps of their forebears are creating new history, step by step. Thus, history is the history of both present and future.

Every generation and social group must face the present, reengaging in “dialogue” with history, generating new historical viewpoints and discourses. At the same time it must also maintain said generation or social group’s unique standpoint, engaging in debate with different historical narratives. History is not a fixed, rigid entity; rather, it resembles a living organism, transforming itself at each new stage of development in a process of eternal reconstruction. 

Qiu Maojing, MA student, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University

Ye Risong (1936- ) was born into a Hakka farming family in Hualian County’s Fuli Township. A graduate of Hualian Normal College (today’s National Dong Hwa University), Ye was employed as an elementary and middle school teacher for forty years. Since retiring from Huagang Middle School in 1993 he has devoted himself to writing Hakka literature. He has served as director of East Lake Literary Arts magazine and chief editor of Hualian Youth magazine. Ye has published modern poetry, essays, children’s literature, Hakka literature, and literary guides, and is the recipient of a number of prestigious literary awards, such as the Chinese Literature and Arts Medal (1990), the World Hakka Federation Literati Award (1998), and the National Contributions to Education Award (2006). He was also selected to represent Taiwan in a Chinese and Korean writers’ conference, and an Asian writers and world poets’ conference. His works have been translated into Korean, Japanese, and English.

Ye Risong’s Hakka writings – what he calls – “another beautiful domain” – have drawn much attention. His poetry is musical, emphasizing rhyme, meter, and harmony, thus many of his works have been set to music. Poet Ya Xian praised Ye’s “A White Egret in Search of a Poem”: “His observation of birds is profound. Reading this poem was like listening to clear water washing over stone, incomparably light and expansive.” Ye Risong’s Hakka works include A Diary Is a Draft (1997), Heady Wine, Fragrant Flowers, Hakka Warmth (1998), Ye Risong’s Hakka Poetry: A Selection (2002), Modern Hakka Poetry: A Selection (2004), Her Name Is Taiwan (2002) Food Cooked in a Wok Is Tastier Than Anything Else (2002), Downhome Taiwan (2004) The Xiuguluan River’s Human Landscape (2006), Bamboo Leaf Boat, You Must Come (2008), and Only Because of Love Is There Warmth in Our Hearts (2008). Chen Yizhi has said of Ye’s Hakka poems: “The writing is simple, the language conveying the emotional flavor of folk songs.”