Written by Kareny Zhong
“Siren is in the mist tonight.
She sings of her lost love
to lonely ships that wander by.
Quick, stop those ears, and tie me up fast.
Lash me if I beg you to free me…”
—
Please. Bear with me,
with me and my voice that lures
a thousand soldiers to my gate.
They say how my song
is like an unbreakable chain.
The tightest lock to the deepest memories
are not so hard to break…
But, stranger, will you hear me close?
Even though you’ll never
understand a word?
In my heart I am cursed
with a permanent ache,
a grief I can never cure.
I was a marvelous singer,
a nightingale to the ears.
I sang for desperate lovers;
I sing for the poor.
Many tried to capture me and
hold me in their cages, to be their
possessions with an eye-catching daze,
but none succeeded in obtaining me.
They did not possess what I seek.
Until one day, that day
when a young man came and promised
a love that would never fade:
He sang to me
a song that he composed.
His voice was no stunning thing,
neither were the melody, the words.
But my heart trembled,
And the famous songbird was
never herself again…
Bewitched, I followed my heart,
but the pursuer traded my love
for a graver plot.
He stole my music for himself,
and left me with a throat that only sings
to lure, to drive out those
memories merry and mad.
I was thrown into the sea
from his bone white sail
but Neptune saw my grief
and exchanged my legs for a tail.
I fled my land for the water
and left all my joy at its shore.
And now – what now?
I am alone, desperate, and
with a voice I cannot end.
I watch from my cliff the ships sail on
to their distant homes,
while grief forces air through my throat.
I try to ask someone to take me away
from this life, all this dismay,
but no one listens.
After the lamp on ship sterns
leave me with two enlarged pupils,
I am alone again, desperate, and
with a voice I still cannot end.
Tell me, stranger, since you’ll be the
only person to survive my voice:
what do you say?
Are you still listening?
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