天若有情天亦老, 月若無恨月長圓
I like the above couplet. It's so nicely matched and yet makes a lot of sense as well. (Unicode to view the chinese characters please.)
Perhaps, we as humans and emtional beings, choose to attach too much emotion to our surroudings, and for that matter our lives. A rose blooms and we think of romance; a leaf falls to the ground in autumn and we think of death. But how do we know whether the flowers and trees and birds and what have you are emotive beings? Perhaps they exist because they exist and it's as simple as that? But no, being human we have to complicate matters.
But anyway perhaps it makes our lives more interesting that way. But it might also mean that we live in a facade which we refuse to get out of. My sentiments match that of Larkin's; he notes that in the end when death claims us, what will survive of us are emotions and memories. Not that these emotions and memories will be accurate; in fact they could jolly well become blurred, but we will keep them anyway.
Anyway the above has nothing much to do directly with the couplet haha, except that the couplet sparked off the thoughts.
And also, thanks to the couplet, I found the following lines from Liang Yu Sheng's novel Bai Fai Mo Nu (White-Haired Bride):
天若有情天亦老，搖搖幽恨難禁
惆悵舊情如夢，醒來無處追尋！
Read that one a long long time ago.... the only time I remember about it is that indecisive man... and the poor lady whose hair turned white as a result of the jerk.
Bleah.
