Foo Hong 符大煥 Calligraphy 2
忍Rěn Endure
忍一時 風平浪靜
Rěn yīshí fēngpínglàngjìng
退一步 海闊天空
Tuì yībù hǎikuòtiānkōng
To endure for a while, The wind will calm down and there will not be any wave
To take a step backward, the sea and the sky will be wide open
Dad wrote this piece on new year day 2009 at age 89 while he was in Hainan . This verse is difficult to translate. In the internet, I find the following. “By tolerant、 you gain peace and calm.; By humble、 you reach new horizon”
“compromise will make a conflict much easy to resolve.” “
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow” However,
Endurance is a difficult act to do. the Chinese logogram of " 忍 endurance" is written with a "knife 刀 刄 " on top of the "heart 心"
At the same time, he also calligraphed the following poem. he wants the family to unit and not fighting each other.
《七步诗》Quatrain of Seven Steps
曹植 Cao Zhi
煮豆燃豆萁
豆在釜中泣
本是同根生
相煎何太急
Firing the beanstalk to boil beans,
The beans in the pot weep.
We are nurtured by the same root,
Why should you fry me so haste?
I just wanted to thank you and your father for this. I have been under crushing stress and anxiety at work, and have printed out this calligraphy and pinned it to my board. I will tell any non-Chinese colleagues who ask that this means "strength" haha.
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