What Is Living For?
What Is Living For?
By Ou, Wen Wei
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 and clothing;
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 shall act with human features and interests.
I am the same as you:
We have conscience and intelligence,
Greed and narrow minds;
We have mercy and justice, have no mercy 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 conduct our lives.
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 equal 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 equal 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.