What Is Living For?
by Ou, Wen Wei
Living, living—
What is living for?
I ask heaven above;
I ask the great earth;
I also ask myself.
Living is to survive.
To survive requires a healthy body;
To survive requires enough food;
To survive requires satisfying enough
needs—
Requires, requires, requires,
Requires all the things we seek, all
the meaning for our lives.
I am a human being; you are a human
being—
We are human beings.
You can smile;
I can smile—
We know how to smile.
Not a stone, not a log,
Not a dumb pig, not a stupid cow—
A human being is a human being.
Therefore, we should act with human
features and interests.
I am the same as you:
We have benevolence and intelligence,
Greed and narrow minds;
We have passion and justice, have no
passion and no reason,
Have love and hate, have sadness and
happiness,
Have open minds and have envy.
Therefore, we need to work together,
Together, together, together—
Together to learn how to be a human
being.
I need to improve; you need to improve—
Together to improve, to continue to
improve,
So our hearts and souls become better.
I need to improve; you need to improve—
Together to improve, to continue to
improve,
So our hearts and souls become better.
I and you together,
You and I together—
Together, together, together,
Together we possess the blue sky and
earth.
You and I together,
I and you together—
Together, together, together,
Together we possess our rights as human
beings;
Together,
Together we possess the new world of
good health and happiness.
Living…
What is living for?
Living is for being human.
Please, let me and you together,
Together possess the blue sky and great
earth,
Together possess our rights as human
beings.
Together…
Together we possess kindness and
friendliness and optimism and enthusiasm—
with these we should conduct our lives.
Together, together,
Together we possess the new world of
benevolence and love,
good health and happiness.
Together…
Together we possess the new world of
benevolence and love,
good health and happiness—
the new world.