Hi, everyone,
I have joined the list for a while but haven't introduced myself. I enjoy
reading poems more than writing them at the moment.
The discussion about suffering interests me and I'd like to ask a couple of
questions.
Question 1 -There will always be degrees of suffering. However, to the person
who suffers, from whatever misfortune or the lack of it, be the unrequited
love, the death of loved ones, poverty, isolation ..., the suffering is real
and the misery/melancholy is tangible. So, can we say it is not the greatest
of suffering that produces a great poet/writer but one's ability to observe
and articulate that experience? If so, can we say that literary writing in a
way celebrates suffering, however trivial sometimes it can be (to other
people)?
Question 2 - do people/poets/writers usually connect suffering with
melancholy? Is melancholy different from sorrow? if so, how?
I'll quote a Chinese poet here who wrote on the subject of suffering or
melancholy, please forgive my rough translation of his great poem:
Xin Qijin [Hsin Chi-chi] (1140-1207)
The Autumn is Beautiful
As a lad I had no idea what meant sorrow
but loved going up the top of the veiwing tower to brood, oh, how I loved
going up the tower
in my desparate need for melancholy when composing another verse.
Now that of suffering I have tasted my fill,
but hesitate on the verge of utterance of my sorrow, oh, how I hesitate
and end up saying the autumn is beautiful.
Yiyan Wang
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