Beans

The other night, we were delayed because my mom kindly fixed the zipper on my jacket that I had previously fixed but with such slipshod quality that it unraveled after a week. My mom does nearly everything with care, precision, and fortitude. I hope to become more like her as I grow up. One can hope for nature and nurture to influence in positive ways, right?

Then, there was the helping my dad with the iPod my sister gave him. We spent some time creating his Apple ID and finding Teresa Teng on iTunes and then syncing over the Philadelphia Chickens an assorted other kids music my sister had on the iPod. Then of course was the familiarizing with iPod controls. "How do you turn it off?" and here I got to tell them about how most iDevices don't really turn off easily. It's a matter of going to sleep. I read somewhere this stems from Steve Jobs' Buddhist beliefs and not wanting "off" (associated with death) to be so final. The reason I mention this is because the poem translated in this post shows some of the Buddhist thinking my grandma (who became a Christian in her later years) held.

We didn't make time to translate a gonggong poem but my mom gave me a wonderful lesson about a classic poem by Caocao that my grandma's poem alludes to. I told my mom I'm going to be the most literary illiterate person in terms of Chinese poetry.

Caocao had two sons, the older son is jealous of his younger brother who is a talented prodigy. The older son commands the younger son to compose a poem in "seven steps" and this is the famous composition he came up with:

Cooking beans, dried bean leaf kindle.

Beans in pot cry [to the leaf kindling],

“We’re from the same root (brothers).

So, why do you push (cook) me so fiercely?”

This is nainai's poem:

Untitled [4 lines of 7 words]

In life why so much bitterness, pushing?

Mirth joy should span our golden years

These good deeds sown, reap in next

Like fairies hover, cross over to life