Bonsai of Thought: Seventy-One

1. Dear Sir,
Until I became your student,
you yourself,
and all of us
believed
you were a good teacher.

2. Rather than accepting,
choose to be weary.
Without weariness,
life does not change.

3. If you live that life too—
the life no one understands—
still, there is no harm.

4. You need not always run.
Sometimes, when you run,
the devil gives chase.

5. Unable to bear your cruelty any longer,
I left one day.

Today you are perfectly fine.
And here I am, consumed by guilt!

6. The less one's capacity,
the smaller one's heart.

7. If your heart is heavy,
look toward the sky.

If your heart is light,
look at your own hands.

8. Before raising your hands to the sky,
it is necessary to strengthen them.

9. If only I had understood that day—
those small joys
would one day seem so precious!

10. Those I love,
I weave myself so deeply into them
that when they leave, it feels
as if a piece of my very existence
has departed!

11. Tell me, when has any deep wound
ever healed without causing pain?

12. Being suddenly forced to see
in a way I am not accustomed to seeing—
is not easy.

13. One day you will lose everything, even your mind.
Once the mind is lost, only the soul remains.
That day you will move beyond everyone's reach.

14. Some thoughts—
you cannot avoid, even if you wish to.

Some feelings—
you cannot forget, even if you wish to.

15. If I received a rose
every time I thought of you,
my entire life
would become a rose garden.

16. Rather than accepting
the humiliations I receive from you,
I will learn to reconcile myself
with your absence.

17. I want to return to such a room—
whether that room exists anywhere at all,
I do not even know.

18. If you truly cannot understand
why I have been suffering for so long,
then you are very fortunate.

19. First grow up yourself,
then speak grand words.

20. When I err, I am the one who must ask forgiveness;
when you err, I am still the one who must ask forgiveness.
Is this what love is called!?