I am a bottle
I hold wine
I have a thousand flairs and flavors
To intoxicate half the world’s population
And change the fate of the other half
I am a bottle
I hold vinegar or sesame oil or ground pepper
I season life, all its ups and downs
To momentarily forget humanity’s sorrows
I am a bottle
I hold cologne, perfume or mineral water
To fill life with a sweet spring
To make women’s reclining bodies more fragrant
To let men radiate a charm all man’s
I am a bottle
I hold vitamins and medicine
A rainbow of pills
Goes into your mouth one after another
A derelict I become
While off to your grave you go, too
I am a bottle
Taken over all too often by fresh flowers
I become a vase
People praise the beautiful flowers
But forget my existence
I am a bottle I am a bottle
I keep telling you
I am a bottle
But what, after all, is a bottle?
From Yin Dih’s 隱地collection of poems I-tien li te hsi-ma《一天裡的戲碼》 [The theatrical program in one day], Taipei: Elite Publishing, 1996.
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