See me or not

        The topic of this week is Appreciating poetry, but I am never good at poetry. Though I am not quite familiar with poem itself and its history or its rules, I also have my favourite poem, The silence of Vadjra Guru Pema, also called See me or not, which was written by Tan Xiaojing in 2007. In case that some of you may have not read it before or have only read Chinese version. Here I will give you an English version of this beautiful poem.

       

        See me,

　　Or see me not,

　　I am here

　　Without joy or tear.

　　Think of me,

　　Or think of me not,

　　Affection is here

　　Despite the change of year.

　　Love me,

　　Or love me not,

　　Love is here,

　　And won’t my heart sear.

　　Come to me,

　　Or come to me not,

　　My hand is here

　　In yours without fear.

　　Be in my bosom,

　　Or let me live In your heart.

　　Silent love.

　　Halcyon happy.

       

        One important reason why I like it is that Ms Tan used very short phrases and words to express her feeling, like “Without joy or tear”, “Silent love” and “Halcyon happy”. This writing style gives readers more space to use their own imagination. For example, when I read the last two lines, I imagined that a man stand silently and watched his girlfriend leaving. As feeling very sad, he recalled all the happy things they have done before. It seemed that I was the man and I could really feel how he was feeling.

        Another reason why I love this poem most is that Ms Tan used a quite interesting structure, like “see me or not”, “think of me or not” and “love me or not”. These sentences showed the sorrow and deep love of the writer: I am not sure whether you love me or not, but whatever it is, I will still love you.

        I was really touched when I read this poem due to the deep love it showed and I hope you will also enjoy this poem.