On Fish

Tu Fu, 712-770
Hsin yueh-fu shih
I see shining fish struggling within tight nets, while I hear orioles singing carefree tunes. Even trivial creatures know the difference between freedom and bondage. Sympathy and compassion should be but natural to the human heart. [TOP]

Jon Wynne-Tyson, 1924-
So Say Banana Bird
Flying fish would land on board, sometimes being caught by the sails and dropping on deck, sometimes hitting the coachroof or stanchions. He retrieved them, sharing the sea’s gift with Seamew. But one day he found himself studying a fish who landed by the forward hatch. He noted the helpless lifting of its strange “wings” as it sought to return to the life-giving sea. He picked it up, feeling the tremulous proof of its humble being, the vibrating will to survive, and in what might have been idle curiosity he held it over the side, watching the eager response of its fins to the dousing of a passing crest. [TOP]

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect. I have tried it again and again. I have skill at it, and, like many of my fellows, a certain instinct for it, which revives from time to time, but always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I had not fished. I think that I do not mistake: It is a faint intimation, yet so are the first streaks of morning. [TOP]

John Wolcot, 1738-1819
To a Fish in the Brook
Why fliest thou away with fear?
Trust me there’s naught of danger near,
I have no wicked hook
All covered with a snaring bait,
Alas, to tempt thee to thy fate,
And drag thee from the brook.
Enjoy thy stream, O harmless fish;
And when an angler for his dish,
Through glutton’ys vile sin,
Attempts, a wretch, to pull thee out,
God give thee strength, O gentle trout,
To pull the rascal in!

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