A Translator’s Reflection on Life, Death, and Paper Trails”

I wrote a poem, inspired by a recent project I worked on, translating a collection of personal documents for a Chinese family... In the poem, I reflect on life, death and the universal human experiences that connect us all.

This isn’t your typical blog post (at least not for a freelance translator!).

It’s a poem (yes, I know 😂…) – one that took shape after a recent translation project that left a mark on me.

I’d been translating a large collection of personal documents for a family in China – marriage certificates, household registrations, a cremation certificate… an entire family history, laid out in official forms and bureaucratic language.

As I moved through the files, my mind began to fill in the gaps, sketching out the lives behind the stamps and signatures. As clichéd as it might sound, I was translating a life. 

Many lives, actually.

Loves found and lost. 

Generations born and gone. 

All captured in ink and pixels.

Somewhere between the lines, this poem began to emerge.

It’s a tribute to one family among millions – a reflection on the universal rhythm of birth, life, and death that connects us all.

And if you’re reading this as a fellow translator, I hope this little poem serves as a gentle reminder of our role: custodians of memory, keepers of stories – however fleeting.

Paper Ashes (a poem by Ka Yee Meck)

A body, no longer young,

but still not old,

perished – one among a million souls

in a pandemic that feels like

a distant

memory,

a dream long gone.

The body burned, and burned,

transformed into

smoke and the memory of a love

now lost.

Wife. Children.

Now husbandless, fatherless—

grieving.

Children are born, as grandparents

slip away.

New marriages bloom

as old loves expire.

The eternal wave of life and death

rises and falls,

engulfing us

all.

I am the guardian of

evidence of love, life, and loss –

captured by officialdom

in paper and pixels.

The humble translator:

a respectful spectator and scribe

of a family’s history –

from the past,

and the yet-to-be made.