If Someone Were to Give Me a Mountain

A Rebellious Love Letter: Composing Taiwan Between Languages

When translating this poem into English, considering the poet ‘wants to forget names,’ I chose to gradually reduce unnecessary punctuation and articles (such as the) as the poem progresses, to echo the ever-expanding state of mind in the poem.

This poem features a large number of plant species, many of which are known larval host plants for specific butterflies. In the original Chinese text, the plants are referenced using their vernacular names, often laden with symbolic meaning and metaphor. In translating these names into English, I adhered to the following principles:


Illustration by Li Yiyang.


If Someone Were to Give Me a Mountain
Wu Ming-yi

If someone were to give me a mountain,
I’d be willing to pay them with names of all the butterflies.
But I do not know the names of all the butterflies.
To repay them I must go searching.
The names of butterflies are shadow, dream, mysticism, and form—
and with each name found in the mountain,
I forget a little of my own name.

To find names of butterflies
you must find Meliosma rhoifolia and Formosan buckthorns
racing all over the mountain
The fluttering Asian water-willows and hairy swallow-worts,
the reclusive Formosan raspberries and stiff-leaved meliosmas,
golden-and-silver honeysuckle, sinuate-leaf tickclovers,
Japanese prickly-ashes, big‑leaf taxillus[1] that belong in fairytales.
You’ll want to meet butterfly lilies
and hope to find wild turmeric along the stream.

Our melancholy is turmeric-gold,
while Chinese rain bells, green shrimp plants,
and fire-mark knotweeds[2] live in sunlight
veined figs in the wind.

If someone were to give me a mountain,
all the water would come
from streams,
from the sky,
from the cracks between sand and sand,
and from kisses.
Reservoirs are hypothetical sentences that never come true
and I would allow you to weep.

If that mountain you gave me
is filled with lemon migrants[3]
you will miss it no matter where you go
because in this world
everyone is always on the road
Bearing your steelwood cassias[4] down the road
you might slash your heart
each time you long for that mountain home

And if someone were to tell me
all the names of all the butterflies
please forgive me
for turning them away, firmly
For mountains are always borrowed
and I wish to forget my own name

Click to show notes.

[1] Big-leaf taxilluses refer to Taxillus liquidambaricola, a parasitic mistletoe species found on Liquidambar trees, known for its broad leaves and folkloric associations.

[2] "Fire-mark knotweeds" is a poetic rendering of Persicaria chinensis (火炭母), named for the reddish blotches on its leaves that resemble glowing embers.

[3] Lemon migrants refer to Catopsilia pomona, a species of butterfly in the Pieridae family, commonly found in Asia and known for its seasonal migrations.

[4] Steelwood cassias refer to Senna siamea (鐵刀木), a Southeast Asian tree known for its extremely hard wood, used for tool handles and furniture.


Notes on Individual Plant Name Translations:
  1. 山豬肉 (Meliosma rhoifolia Maxim): host plant for Broad-striped Hopper and Starry Night Butterfly, since no clear English common name, retained scientific name Meliosma rhoifolia. As the first plant appearing in the poem, using the scientific name also echoes the overall poetic movement from complexity to simplicity, from naming toward namelessness.
  2. 鼠李 (桶鉤藤，Rhamnus formosana Matsum): host plant for Taiwan Yellow Butterfly, used common name Formosan Buckthorn as recorded by National Museum of Natural Science, presenting Taiwan imagery.
  3. 尖尾鳳 (Justicia gendarussa): used English common name Asian Water Willow, pointing to Asian regional meaning.
  4. 鷗蔓 (originally Tylophora ovata, now merged into Vincetoxicum hirsutum): host plant for Blue-spotted Butterfly, used English common name hairy swallow-worts, in which ‘Hairy’ echoes the imagery of 'can fly' in the poem.
  5. 台灣懸鉤子 (Rubus formosensis): host plant for White Hopper and Hairstreak, used common name Formosan Raspberry, highlighting regionality.
  6. 筆羅子 (Meliosma rigida): used common name Stiff-leaved Meliosma, with stiff-leaved echoing 'hermit-like.'
  7. 忍冬 (Lonicera japonica): host plant for Line Blue and Purple Banded Butterfly, used common name Golden-and-silver honeysuckle, with its colors and fairy-tale associations corresponding to 'belong to fairytales.'
  8. 波葉山螞蝗 (old Desmodium sequax, now Ototropis sequax): host plant for Ryukyu Line Blue, used common name Sinuate-leaf Tickclover from the National Museum of Natural Science, with 'Tick's' playful sound echoing 'belong to fairytales.'
  9. 食茱萸 (Zanthoxylum ailanthoides): host plant for Swallowtail, used common name Japanese Prickly-Ash, echoing the Japanese imagery of '穗花山奈' in the poem.
  10. 楓寄生: assumed to be Taxillus liquidambaricolus (big-leaf mistletoe parasitic on maple), translated as Big-leaf Taxillus, with 'big-leaf' as poetic rendering of '大葉,' continuing the fairy-tale setting.
  11. 穗花山奈 (Hedychium coronarium): wild ginger flower, host plant for Black Hopper, used English common name Butterfly Lily, echoing romantic imagery.
  12. 郁金 (Curcuma aromatica): host plant for Ginger Hopper? Curcuma derives from Sanskrit, referring to turmeric, here used English common name Wild turmeric, in which wild echoes the image of 'picked up by the stream.'
  13. 憂鬱如金: translated as 'golden like turmic,' to correspond to the metaphor from '鬱金' → '郁金' → '毛薑黃.'
  14. 馬藍 (Strobilanthes cusia): used common name Chinese Rain Bell, with 'flowers like rain bells' corresponding to 'Fire-mark Knotweed' later, creating visual linkage.
  15. 賽山藍 (Blechum pyramidatum): used common name Green Shrimp Plant, with 'shrimp' linking with previous 'rain bells,' creating visual continuity.
  16. 火炭母 (Persicaria chinensis): common names include Chinese knotweed or creeping smartweed, created new poetic name Fire-mark Knotweed, visualizing its red markings, also echoing Chinese name 火炭母. With 'fire-mark' linking 'rain bells' and 'shrimp,' creating an image chain. Scientific name noted at poem's end. (Note: 馬藍 also has English common name Wild Indigo (general, not specific); 賽山藍 also seen called Wild Hop. If prioritizing rhyme and pairing in the poem, such names may also be used.)
  17. 九重吹 (九丁榕，Ficus nervosa): nervosa in Latin means nerve, vein. Here used common name Veined Fig, describing the leaf veins, connecting to the following ‘stab at the heart’ emotional and physiological metaphor.
  18. 鐵刀木 (Senna siamea): though having multiple English common names such as Siamese Cassia, Kassod Tree, Pheasantwood, Yellow Cassia, none directly echo 'knife,' 'cut' imagery. Therefore created poetic translation Steelwood Cassia, presenting its role in the poem as 'wood that cuts the heart.' Scientific name noted at poem’s end.


《如果有人要送我一座山》
吳明益

如果有人要送我一座山，我願意付給他所有蝴蝶的名字，但是我並不知道所有蝴蝶的名字。為了償還我得尋找它們。蝴蝶的名字是陰影、夢想、神秘主義和形式，每找到一個就會在山裡忘記自己的名字一點點。

為了找到蝴蝶的名字你得找到滿山跑動的山豬肉鼠李，會飛的尖尾鳳鷗蔓，隱士般的懸鉤子筆羅子，可以寫在童話裡的忍冬山螞蝗食茱萸楓寄生，你會想遇到穗花山奈並且在溪邊撿到郁金。

我們的憂鬱如金，而馬藍賽山藍火炭母在陽光裡，九重吹在風裡。

如果有人要送我一座山，所有的水都會來自溪流、天空、砂和砂之間的縫隙，以及吻；水庫是不會實現的假設語句，而且我會允許你流淚。

如果你給我的那座山啊，都是檸檬色的遷徙者，你會走到哪裡都想念那座山，因為這世界每個人都在路上。扛著你的鐵刀木啊在路上，想念故鄉的山就往心口砍一刀。

如果有人要告訴我所有蝴蝶的名字，請原諒我狠心地拒絕。因為山總是借來的，而我想忘記自己的名字。

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