Salted Fish

鹹魚 Salted fish

Words and Music by Ashin

I am a salted fish, I don’t want to admit it but I can’t deny it
Don’t pity my stupidity, or praise my naivety, or dream in vain that I’ll change

Because if a salted fish tries to change, it’s still just a salted fish, it loses sincerity
At least in the end, I have the salted fish’s great pride of never rotting away

I have no real talent, yet I have the naivety of dreams
I’m foolish, but not dim-witted, I’m going to bear witness, using my life

I, if I have a dream, I may make mistakes,
but only if you’ve made mistakes can you have understanding, understanding of what persistence really is
I, if I have a dream, the dream might be crazy,
but only if it’s crazy can I become a hero and one day have a legend of my own

I’m not good, nor am I bad, I’m not particularly outstanding, I just dare to be different
My life is just one mistake after another, after finishing one mistake, starting over

Perhaps giving up a little might make living more relaxing, but then I wouldn’t be me
I’m not willing to spend my life relaxing in the sun and wind, even a salted fish should have a dream

I have no real talent, yet I have the naivety of dreams
I’m foolish, but not dim-witted, I’m going to testify using my life

One day I’ll have my heaven

I’ll be my own hero, in my heaven, I know you understand, I know you can understand, na…

Notes: Mandarin lyrics to the song Fool 憨人, from the Viva Love 愛情萬歲 album, for release in China. You can see the video (which looks like it was shot, appropriately, in mainland China) here. At the beginning, Ashin introduces himself and says that when the five of them formed their band back in 1999 (well, when they put out their first album, anyway), they never imagined their songs would travel so far. He asks listeners who also have dreams to sing along with Mayday. I prefer the Hokkien version myself, for reasons I note on the "Fool" page.