Ten Notes on Rhetoric via the History of Sea Salt Harvesting by Pek-êng Koa & C.J. Anderson-Wu

Pek-êng Koa & C.J. Anderson-Wu | October 26th, 2023 | poetry | No Comments

Poet Bio

鹽史修辭十課

◎柯柏榮

一粒一粒鹽
一滴一滴汗
一巡一巡皺紋
一頓一頓認份
是排比

一片白鑠鑠的棋盤
鹽工用鹽耙仔行棋
是轉化

一仙彎腰耙鹽的雕像
力佮美的結合
是象徵

日頭下跤
一座生命的結晶閃閃爍爍
是借代

阿爸用搰力扛散赤
阿母用勤儉飼未來
是對偶

出外拍拼的囝孫
煎魚袂記得豉鹽
是倒反

七股的空氣
愈來愈汫矣
是轉品

一甕鹽甕仔
貯338冬的智慧佮血汗
是夸飾

白鴒鷥,你勼一支跤
敢是咧測量天地的鹹度?
是設問

一塊「觀光鹽田」招牌
一群學生囡仔濁濁的目睭 
是——

English Translation by C J. Anderson-Wu

One grain of salt after another
One drop of sweat after another
One ripple of saline water after another
One acknowledgement of fate after another
This is parallelism

On the brilliantly white chessboard
a worker rakes, aligning the lines
This is metonymy

His bending profile constitutes a sculpture
of strength and beauty
This is symbolism

Under the sun
the crystals of life glisten
This is synecdoche

Dad fights poverty through diligence
Mom nourishes future with thrift
This is antithesis

Descendants who make livings away from hometowns
forget to use salt when frying fish
This is irony

The air in the coastal town of Qigu
became thinner and thinner
This is conversion

An urn of salt
contains painstaking work and wisdom of 338 winters
This is hyperbole

Is the egret, standing on one leg,
measuring the salinity between heaven and earth?
This is a rhetorical question

A sign reads “Tourist Salt Field”
and a group of bleary-eyed students
This is ________

Poet Bio

Pek-êng Koa/柯柏榮 is an award-winning poet in the Taiwanese language. Having spent 17 years in prison on two charges of robbery, Koa began learning this language and writing in it during his time behind bars. Currently, he teaches poetry writing in the Taiwanese language. Koa’s achievements in poetry has been honored by more than thirty significant literary awards in Taiwan.

C J. Anderson-Wu/吳介禎 is a Taiwanese writer and translator. Her short stories have been shortlisted for a number of international literary awards, including the Art of Unity Creative Award by the International Human Rights Art Festival. She also won the Strands Lit International Flash Fiction Competition, and the Invisible City Blurred Genre Literature Competition.

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