If I love you --
I will never be a clinging trumpet creeper
Using your high boughs
to show off my height
If I love you --
I will never be a spoony bird
Repeating a monotonous song
for green shade
Or be a spring
Bringing cool solace all year long
Or be a steep peak
Increasing your stature,
Reflecting your eminence
Even the sunlight
Even the spring rain
No, all these are not enough
I must be a ceiba tree beside you
Be the image of a tree
standing together with you
Our roots, entwined underground
Our leaves, touching in the clouds
With each gust of wind
We greet each other
But nobody
Can understand our words
You'll have your copper branches
and iron trunk
Like knives, like swords, like halberds, too
I'll have my crimson flowers
Like heavy sighs
And valiant torches
We'll share cold spells,
storms and thunder
We'll share mists, hazes and rainbows
Seemingly always apart
But also forever interdependent
Only this can be great love
The loyalty is here
Love --
I love not only your strapping stature
But also your firm stand,
the earth beneath you