This may be the last old screed that i'm posting on my blog, unless i find another one somewhere deep in the closet...
Here's the screed in a readable form (click on image to enlarge):
Here's the translation at my best effort:
The time spent with old friends is always the happiest, yet it's also the shortest.This screed was written years ago when i had ended the seven-year relationship with my first boyfriend. Well, being heart broken and all, i guess it was understandable that i would think of love being akin to coffee. I don't think as such anymore. Love is an entirely different thing to me now.
Went to Coffee Bean with a few friends today. We drank coffee and chit-chatted about many things. It was so relaxing. Only the time spent with them could remind me of the serene happiness of the good old days.
Out of the blue, one of them had a sip of her coffee, frowned and asked why so many people like to drink coffee. She said that coffee is such a strange thing. It smells so sweet but when you drink it, there is a bitter taste within the sweetness that is incongruous with the enchanting aroma.
I chuckled. Isn't love the same as well? In fact, love is just like coffee, isn't it? The feelings of secretly admiring someone, or the unspoken mutual affections, are so wonderful; but when the two persons are actually together, the feelings will not be as wondrous anymore. Perhaps that is because once two persons are together, the feelings will become too real, the ugliness will become so clear, and everything ceases to be beautiful anymore. When we are secretly admiring someone, how the person is in reality isn't important at all. We would embellish the person in our minds, thinking that this person is the best of all. It's just like coffee, the sweet aroma makes us fantasize about it; but when a relationship starts, just as if we've drunk the coffee, the taste is simply a mixture of bitter and sweet yet we are unable to call it quits. The bitter sweet aftertaste will stay in the throat, lingering on for a long long time. And the caffeine, it's even more like love, so stimulating that we become addicted and yet it's so harmful to our body.
There was once i used to drink a cup of ice coffee everyday and it slowly became a habit. After a while, i decided to kick this habit, just like i kick away love. However, whenever i saw someone drinking coffee and the look of gratification on their faces, i just couldn't resist ordering a cup for myself too. It's exactly that kind of bitter sweet taste that is simply irresistible. Perhaps to me, love, just like coffee, is something that i couldn't forever live without.
If you ask me now, i would say love is just like Pu-er tea. The tea leaves must be kept with care for optimal fermentation, the tea brewing requires skills, the tea drinking needs appreciation, its earthy taste may be uncongenial at first but it will slowly grows on you, and there may be fake ones in the market but the genuine ones only get better with age. Yes, that's what true love is like -- a good brew of authentic Pu-er tea.
Labels: introspection