Love in marriage--that never loses its glow

Words written by Kuan Tao-Sheng (1262-1319) about her love for her husband...a love that began in the Southern Song Dynastic and lasted into the Early Yuan. She was a loving wife and an exceptional writer and artist.

you and i
have so much love,
that it
burns like a fire,
in which we bake a lump of clay
molded into a figure of you
and a figure of me.
then we take both of them,
and break them into pieces,
and mix the pieces with water,
and mold again a figure of you,
and a figure of me.
i am in your clay.
you are in my clay.
in life we share a single quilt.
in death we will share one coffin.

Translated by:
Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

Que es malo/bueno?

We love the bad boys and girls for how they make us feel. Through them we leave behind our mundane, neatly ordered, lawful and boring lives. It how we are made to feel, that is good. They are being bad by going beyond what we would imagine doing. Yet...vicariously--that moment of being bad gives us a fear filled but satisfying moment. The movies give us so many of these moments to shake us out of our well ordered lives for that periodic moment that we seek. Does pain feel good...does it arouse...does it speak of love? For some it is the only language they understand or so it seemed when I watched Ang Lee's Lust,Caution (Se,jie) on DVD. It concerned me to feel excited, aroused during scenes that mixed love with violence. Is there a fine line between the two that I have never seen before...has raw love actually been this brutal but lost in the moment..if so it was never realized? Intrigue, what would I do for a thrill? Oh, have I answered that question many time in my life. To defy...PERIOD. Nothing more nothing less. Just to defy the odds, to match wits to flaunt in defiance regardless of the possible outcome. Ang Lee goes deep inside...pulls you off the couch and leaves one feeling flush...it is very much worth viewing.