Longing Awake and Asleep, the Heart Seeps into the Food

answered by Shijing, "Guan Ju" (Airs of Zhou Nan)

기원전 11~7세기(주나라 시가 모음)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Like Water for Chocolate (1992)

dir. Alfonso Arau · Mexico

A family's custom bars a person's love. When the heart cannot be shown outwardly, where does that pent-up longing turn? Between distilling it in endurance and channeling it through some other path, which keeps the heart alive?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

A love that custom forbids from being expressed — where does it flow, and in what form does it remain?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

輾轉反側

求之不得，寤寐思服。悠哉悠哉，輾轉反側

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Sought yet unwon, longing awake and asleep, I toss and turn all night.

💡 TL;DR

The Book of Songs sang of longing: "Sought but not found, I yearn awake and asleep." A love that cannot be expressed does not vanish; it finds another channel and overflows.

📝The Classic Answers

The Book of Songs sang of longing: "Sought but not found, I yearn awake and asleep." A love that cannot be expressed does not vanish; it finds another channel and overflows. For the ancients it became song; for someone it becomes a table set with devotion. A pent-up heart, if only endured, becomes illness, but channeled in any form, it warms a life. Rather than merely bear a blocked heart, I choose to give it one honest path to flow.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If a feeling cannot be spoken, make one channel for it today — a piece of writing, a meal cooked, a caring hand.

📖 Classic Source: Shijing, "Guan Ju" (Airs of Zhou Nan).
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.