...in Namibia.
I came home late last night and caught the end of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It's because of this movie that I viewed the East with such a positive sense of adventure and romance. I found myself with salty tears stinging down my cheeks in the near to last scene, when Li Mu Bai gives up his life.
Once again that sense of the failure of great strength, power and endurance in the face of arrogance, and beauty and coldness...that's the tragic reality I have
often seen and experienced in my life.
The tears were not so much for me (or were they) but for the sadness, the sorrow that is a well lived life wasted on those who don't seem to understand what they
are doing.
Yu Shu Lien: You were enlightened?
Li Mu Bai: No. I didn't feel the bliss of enlightenment. Instead...
I was surrounded by an endless sorrow.
Li Mu Bai: I've already wasted my whole life.
I want to tell you with my last breath that I have always loved you.
I would rather be a ghost, drifting by your side as a condemned soul,
than enter heaven without you. Because of your love,
I will never be a lonely spirit.
Li Mu Bai: The things we touch have no permanence.
My master would say: there is nothing we can hold onto in this world. Only by letting go can we truly possess what is real.
Li Mu Bai: Like many things, I am nothing.
Li Mu Bai: Real sharpness comes without effort.
Li Mu Bai: Sharpness is a state of mind.
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