"Back to the Tribe!"
Provided by Walis Nokan
Back To The Tribe!
When he discovered that he was inch by inch disappearing,
Bihao, primary school teacher in the city, decided he must go back to the tribe.
That morning, Bihao got a call from the tribe
but eeh-eeh-ah-ah-ing, he no longer made sounds that Yaya understood.
Bihao’s throat had become just like that of the lying dog,
disappearing on a quiet city morning!
Letting his tears stream into the receiver was all he could do
as if at the end of the line there were a priest receiving his confession.
When his people asked what he’d come back for－
Bihao managed to squeeze out a sickly sound: “To cure the pain in my throat.”
But no one understood his A-me-ri-can.
When she discovered that she was inch by inch disappearing,
our Giwas, who sang in the city, decided she had to take her leave.
That night, Giwas turned on the fluorescent light in her room
and a deathly white hue covered the deep dark of her face.
Our healthy Giwas had become just like the child running down the mountain,
a face belonging to the Atayal inch by inch disappearing.
In the empty vastness of the city night
Giwas could no longer see her own face.
When her people asked what she’d come back to do－
Giwas, covering her white face with dark hands, said:
“To find my face back.”
But in the tribe, who cares if your face is round or square?
When he discovered that he was inch by inch disappearing,
Wadang, strolling amid city jungle scaffolding, decided he must return to the tribe.
That day, oh! Not one cloud had the nerve to block the sun at high noon.
Our nimble Wadang in the glass of a skyscraper’s windows
finally saw a tailless monkey lost in the city.
It was rocking back and forth, as if tied down in a huge mechanical trap－
at some point, the tribe’s hunter had changed into a quadruped!
When his people asked what he’d come back to do－
Wadang flexed his pulsating muscles and said, excited:
“To go up the mountain and hunt!”
And what was the use of hunting, his people disdainfully asked:
“All prey
