Happiness. Self-interest. Love, well-being.

Though circumstances may press us to consider neglecting 
the one we love, we can never dismiss their selfless love.
So in the end, carrying on life properly 
without our beloved becomes impossible.

The happiest souls in this world are those
who spend their entire lives tenderly
with the one they love. I salute such people
and say—may you flourish even more!
Congratulations to you! In tomorrow's embrace,
present your carefully nurtured love story
as such a profound treasure of joy
that the new world will gaze at you in wonder
and learn to love anew!

This was one side of the coin's perspective!
Shall I introduce you to the other side's view?
Not bad at all, I'd say!

To discuss the coin's other face, however,
I must speak of many matters.
Well, you see, this is the world's eternal way!

More poetry has been written about sorrowful people
than about the happy ones in this world.
So always, sidestepping the joy of the joyful,
the emphasis on the sorrow of the sorrowful
has been... rather excessive. This we must admit!

Yet whatever we say, both sides of the coin—
they complement each other; sometimes
they complete each other too!
One has never existed without the other,
doesn't exist even today.

The sorrow of sorrowful people comes in many forms,
you understand! Since we were speaking
of those who found sorrow in love,
let today's discussion remain within this realm.

When desperately in love, if walking together
with that beloved becomes impossible in the end,
what that pain feels like cannot be explained
to one who hasn't experienced it. Quite natural!

If you tell stories of a beggar's hut
to someone who never spent a day
outside a landlord's mansion,
it will seem mere fantasy to them,
or reality will find it impossible
to stretch imagination so far.

This explains why one who found happiness in love
cannot grasp why the heartbroken
develops hatred toward love itself.

Another aspect: if you try telling
someone who never learned to love
about immersing in love's sorrow,
it becomes a mere waste of time.
To one who doesn't understand love at all,
what is love's joy, what is its pain!
To them it's all supernatural, nothing more.

So what I was saying! The sorrow found in love
is either one-sided or mutual.
One-sided sorrow is terribly pitiful!
Mutual sorrow is devastatingly heartbreaking!

Loving someone and suffering alone,
versus both loving each other and both suffering—
these are different matters entirely, my friend!

Yes, if you love someone who doesn't understand,
that causes great pain. But when both love each other
deeply yet still suffer, that becomes truly heartbreaking!

Suffering yourself from someone's actions
feels terrible indeed! But if you must watch
your beloved suffer alongside you
from loving you, that becomes
a form of torture! If you truly love someone,
you'll understand.

Oh, and if against your own wishes,
to manage circumstances and reality,
you yourself must cause them pain—
I can't even think of greater suffering
right now! That could be called
inhumanely letting yourself,
your beloved, and your love
be murdered... helplessly!

So I say, for however many days you live,
instead of all this complexity, doubt, jealousy, conflict—
why not love with an open heart!
You'll see, it will feel good
and you'll be well.

Oh no no, I didn't ask you to be generous!
Such things are impossible for me.
I myself am terribly selfish.

Think carefully—did I ask you to love generously?
Oh, you foolish people, I didn't ask you
to be generous, but rather
to love with open hearts, forgetting everything—
I asked you to be even more selfish!

Still don't understand? Fine, let me explain.

What exactly did I tell you? To love and be well,
to live with good feelings—isn't that right?
So my friend, being well and feeling good—
what greater selfishness exists
while living than these two?

Even after death, it's the same...
this being well and feeling good!
To feel a little better, for things to feel good—
isn't that why we keep accounts
of sin and virtue, my friend!