Last semester I read a short work by Shi Tiesheng called "我与地坛" or "The Temple of Earth and I" in which Shi wrote some lessons he had learned about humanity by watching the people at the park there. Aside from identifying with his ways of people watching, I found something in his words that really resonated with me. At the end he writes as if addressing the park itself:
要是有些事我没说，地坛，你别以为是我忘了，我什么也没忘，但是有些事只适合收藏。不能说，也不能想，却又不能忘。它们不能变成语言，它们无法变成语言， 一旦变成语言就不再是它们了。它们是一片朦胧的温馨与寂寥，是一片成熟的希望与绝望，它们的领地只有两处：心与坟墓 。
If there are some things I do not say, Temple of Earth, don't think I've forgotten. I have forgotten nothing, but some things are only fit for storing up. You cannot speak them or even think them, but you cannot forget them either. They cannot become words; it is impossible for them to become words. The moment they are turned to words, they are no longer themselves.They are a hazy slice of tenderness and of loneliness, of mature hopes and of despair. Their only two domains, the heart and the grave.
this is absolutely gorgeous.
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