Each time I see you,
I see myself;
I see the past and the present.
We both came from China,
You stayed inside the grand institution,
I stayed in a dark basement.
People came to admire you,
But can you hear their praise?
Or speak your gratitude?
I could hear, but I couldn’t speak.
I guess then, you are the same as me.
You came here before me,
You found your home here and made it bright.
This, is my new home,
I will make it bright as you did to yours.
At last,
I have learned about your visitors,
Their culture and society,
And I became one part of them.
It was painful but the joy came after.
I will come back to see you often,
And share my experience with you.
From your mouth I hear silence,
But I can feel your spiritual voice,
You said to me,
The four seas are our home.
– Gu Xiong, 1999