One can learn such a lot and enjoy such a lot in seventy years, and three generations is a long, long time to see human follies and acquire human wisdom. Anyone who is wise and has lived long enough to witness the changes of fashion and morals and politics through the rise and fall of three generations should be perfectly satisfied to rise from his seat and go away saying, 'It was a good show,' when the curtain falls.

—Lin Yutang (1895–1976), The Importance of Living (1937)

Photo by StockSnap on Pixabay

“From a scientific perspective, ‘destroy’ isn’t really accurate. Nothing has disappeared. All the matter that used to be there is still there, and so is all the angular momentum. It’s only the arrangement of matter that has changed, like a deck of cards being reshuffled. But life is like a straight flush: once you shuffle, it’s gone.” 

–Windfall, an astronomer, in Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu

How did I come to spend my life in this miserable valley?
In the middle of the night I get up. Ten thousand worries and griefs...
My soul does not come when called. It's gone back to its old home.

—Du Fu (712–770). Although he was one of China's greatest poets, he lived in tumultuous times, lost two children to starvation, wandered as an exile with his family far from home, dependent on wealthier friends, and spent the last part of his life in great sickness and poverty. From "Seven poems written while living at Tonggu during the Qianyuan Era" (758–760)

我生何為在窮谷
中夜起坐萬感集...
魂捐不來歸故鄉

—乾元中寓居同谷縣作歌七首

Before long I will leave this earth. I am trying to stay calm, to talk with you for the first and last time on this paper. I fear you can’t imagine what it’s like, alas. To face this moment and be unable to see you once, to hug you once, to kiss you once ... I am heartbroken. My regret is unending. 

  –Huang Wen-kung 黃溫恭 (1920–1953), a political prisoner condemned to execution in 1950s Taiwan, writing to his unborn child. The family was told he had killed himself. His daughter finally received her father's letter in 2008, at age 56, after her daughter found it in government archives.

我不久就要和世間永別了。用萬分的努力來鎮靜心腦，來和妳做一次最初而最終的紙上談話吧。我的這心情 恐怕妳不能想像吧！ 嗚呼！臨於此時不能見妳一面，抱妳一回， 吻妳一嘴…………我甚感遺憾！ 長恨不盡！

When his father died, he could not [bear to] read his father's books-- the touch of his hand seemed still to be on them. 

  --From The Book of Rites  禮記, chapter Yuzao 玉藻, translation by James Legge (1815-1897). The book is one of the Chinese classics; it was compiled before 221 BC.

父歿而不能讀父之書，手澤存焉爾。

Ji Lu asked about the best way to serve ghosts and spirits. The master said, "You have not yet served humans well, how is it you wonder about ghosts and spirits?" Ji Lu ventured to ask about death. The master said, "We do not yet understand life, how could we understand death?"

  --Confucius (ca 551–479 BC), as quoted in The Analects, 先進 (Xian Jin). 

季路問事鬼神。子曰：「未能事人，焉能事鬼？」敢問死。曰：「未知生，焉知死？」

To the Tune of The Beauty from Yu

Spring flowers, autumn moon, when do they come to an end?
Looking at past times, I know just how much
In the little tower last night, an east wind again
I cannot bear to turn my head toward the old country under the bright moon
The carven railings, the jade-white steps must still be there
Only the fair faces have changed.
I ask you, how much sorrow can there be?
As much as the great river flowing east in spring floods.

    --Li Yu 李煜 (937-978), last king of the southern Tang dynasty, lost his kingdom and finished his life a prisoner of the new Song dynasty. Li Yu is considered one of China's major poets. 

You can hear famous Chinese singer Deng Lijun 鄧麗君 (Teresa Deng) singing this poem here. 

虞美人

春花秋月何時了，
往事知多少。
小樓昨夜又東風，
故國不堪回首月明中。
雕闌玉砌應猶在，
只是朱顏改。
問君能有幾多愁，
恰似一江春水向東流。

To the tune "The Ugly Slave-girl"

When I was young and had never tasted grief, I loved to climb towers.
I loved to climb towers to write elegant poems about my grief.
But now that I have tasted the utmost dregs of grief, I somehow cannot mention it.
I somehow cannot mention it. Instead I say, "What nice brisk autumn weather."

      --Chinese poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾 (1140-1207)

醜奴兒

少年不識愁滋味，愛上層樓。
愛上層樓，為賦新詞強說愁。
而今識盡愁滋味，欲說還休。
欲說還休，卻道天涼好個秋。