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Hi Yiyan Wang The poem reminds me of a line from Shelley's Defence of Poetry: The pleasure that is in sorrow, is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself... Steve KK At 4:21 PM +1000 21/8/2000, Yiyan Wang wrote: >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 --