再见
Friends, all, beloved, all;
We are gathered here today, temporarily, and soon we shall leave. We shall part, and be apart, although it is my fervent wish that you will bring me with you, as a part of you as I am apart from you.
You know I am leaving for a far-flung locale for six months. If I return -- good. If I do not, it may well mean that a better opportunity has found me - that is even better! But for tonight, I am, alas, not looking forward to the golden opportunity and wonderful possibilities and beautiful optimism that is hope for the unknown. Tomorrow I will; for the next six months I will, but before then, tonight, I will not.
No, tonight I will wallow in misery and self-pity and freeze my already-chilled, already-cold feet. Tonight I will be despondent and despairing and depressed, and look to the past, and try to cling on to the present. Tonight I do not want it to end.
Because who could bear leaving this lot of you?
Six months, in truth, is not a long time. And even the far-flung place is not that far away. But what I fear is not physical, time-space distance/displacement, but instead, indeed, the emotional displacement that will come from not seeing you for six months...
...at this point I truly apologise for those of you I barely see once or twice a year. Alas. You know how it is, life is busy busy busy...
No, I will not fear going to live in the desert or a foreign land I can't speak the national language of or to a culture I don't pretend to even have the slightest inkling off or to a role and an education so unlike the one I've had before. That's not my fear; my fear is not having you around.
I like to complain about my family. We're almost a nuclear family - we repel the other families that, at some point in time, we knew. We're distant, and far away, and I was always very envious of my friends, who had family friends they visited, the two families going out to do cool stuff together. There is a difference between value and worth; my friends, you are my greatest treasure, and I value you greatly beyond your worth.
This speech is entitled 再见. It passes for "goodbye", in Chinese, but characteristically, literally, it means "to see again". My friends, we now part again, but I look forward to seeing you again.
We are gathered here today, temporarily, and soon we shall leave. We shall part, and be apart, although it is my fervent wish that you will bring me with you, as a part of you as I am apart from you.
You know I am leaving for a far-flung locale for six months. If I return -- good. If I do not, it may well mean that a better opportunity has found me - that is even better! But for tonight, I am, alas, not looking forward to the golden opportunity and wonderful possibilities and beautiful optimism that is hope for the unknown. Tomorrow I will; for the next six months I will, but before then, tonight, I will not.
No, tonight I will wallow in misery and self-pity and freeze my already-chilled, already-cold feet. Tonight I will be despondent and despairing and depressed, and look to the past, and try to cling on to the present. Tonight I do not want it to end.
Because who could bear leaving this lot of you?
Six months, in truth, is not a long time. And even the far-flung place is not that far away. But what I fear is not physical, time-space distance/displacement, but instead, indeed, the emotional displacement that will come from not seeing you for six months...
...at this point I truly apologise for those of you I barely see once or twice a year. Alas. You know how it is, life is busy busy busy...
No, I will not fear going to live in the desert or a foreign land I can't speak the national language of or to a culture I don't pretend to even have the slightest inkling off or to a role and an education so unlike the one I've had before. That's not my fear; my fear is not having you around.
I like to complain about my family. We're almost a nuclear family - we repel the other families that, at some point in time, we knew. We're distant, and far away, and I was always very envious of my friends, who had family friends they visited, the two families going out to do cool stuff together. There is a difference between value and worth; my friends, you are my greatest treasure, and I value you greatly beyond your worth.
This speech is entitled 再见. It passes for "goodbye", in Chinese, but characteristically, literally, it means "to see again". My friends, we now part again, but I look forward to seeing you again.