Translations Found and Formed

A new(ish) feature on Instagram offers to automatically translate captions and stories for certain languages. Since I follow lots of people who aren't posting regularly in English, I use this feature often. And, often, the direct translations are mistranslations,--missed-mark translations. But, sometimes, that missed mark sounds profound, or poetic even, so I've been keeping my favorite phrases jotted out in my notebook. Today I wrote two found poems with them, the first based off of story translations from @weiminqiu 's account and the second from captions by @andybian0619 . Here they are:

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Utensil

found translation of Rootdo

My father told me to eat a life.

To what extent is it God?

Didn't I lose a big love that year?

"What day?" May.

My father told me, "Look

at that man. You are also

a real person. Buy two pairs

chopsticks and split them together."

I told my father, "I'm in

the middle of the day: if

they're the same color against the grain,

where's the point of persistence?"

Didn't I loose a big love that year?

I am in the middle of the day,

of May. How many gods

must we eat to come alive?

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Climbing the Mountain

found translation of Andy Bian

Everyone seems to have survived,

staring at you like a whistle. In the dark

you don't know what's ahead, and the adrenaline

was full open. At the top of the attack: the bright

snowy mountain, the temperature of the zero.

I can only say

It's comfortable to explode.

I'm going to go to the middle of the night, and I'm

going to go to the mountains. Steaks, cavalry,

hotpot, and all kinds of materials went up the mountain.

As soon as I arrived at the mountain house gas stove,

I didn't stop.