Easter

　　Last weekend is Easter.
　　Friday Sebastian explained to me what is 'sonnet' as I described to him what Linz and I discusssed in the post before, the double 'snow' thing of that poem. The strictness of 七绝, the violation of repetition in the same line but this one is a exceptional good one. (Well my translation is so-so, just describe) So he mentioned 'sonnet', another strict form.
　　I should say it's very hard for me to understand all its rules, rhyme. But at least I see it is 十四行诗. Actually I read some Chinese translation before in magazine like 万象, translated by some old English literature professors I suppose, living in London some time before.
　　At that time I got a good passion to study English and was curious about whether my random interest of poem can help a little. Unfortunately, Chinese version of sonnet makes no sense for me, not saying the original English one. I can't see what is so good for lines something like 'even the lightest falling like a petal, still too heavy!'
　　At the end, Sebastian said, 'Happy Easter!' is reasonable greeting, Easter has a good reason to be happy, for 'all souls are saved'.
　　The last words shed lights on me.
　　Yes, it's so good if 'all souls are saved'.
　　I suppose ALL includes people like me.
　　
　　It is very interesting if people in different culture discussing some basic concept.
　　The other day, Sebastian is a little not himself when just back to Germany from Shanghai. His problem is, he felt sad after sharing a good time with nice people here and become far away again. Well, I have some problem to understand this. It seems it is not a problem for Chinese at all, so again I kept my good habit of boasting my pretty good Chinese knowledge to foreigners (As analyzed by Georgia, 'you didn't do a good job in primary Chinese course, maybe... so after grow-up, like to show off'. That's right, my primary essay is as verbose as a joke). I told him the old Chinese lines:海内存知己，天涯若比邻。海上升明月，天涯共此时（真是太搞笑了，我敲这几行都要笑死了）Moon rises on the sea, we share the same moment even over the far far away edge of the world.
　　Then Sebastian said, this shed lights on his mind.
　　I should say it's a magic I did not expect.

　　So today I asked, why 'all souls are saved' on Easter.　　
　　He explained, God gave his son to people, Jesus took all sins of people on him and get crucified on Good Friday.
　　I questioned, why GOOD Friday as he's crucified?
　　Don't ask me why good.
　　And a few days later, Easter, Jesus is resurrected. That means God forgives all our sins and all souls are saved.
　　This time I undestand somehow. The fact that Jesus revived is a signal from God that he approve people's 'forgive us' request. Because I just get a email notification from my boss, 'Your off-in-lieu request is approved.' In some way God needs to send a notification somehow, if not an email. I guess this is not a Christian understanding at all.

　　But I remember last time on the train back from Hangzhou we discussed religion issue. Sebastian said, on Easter Jesus is revived, this means all people shall believe in God, and they will be saved.
　　This part causes big problem for me to understand. What's the logic of Jesus is alive again, and then all people believe in Him? Seems no logic...
　　Obviously Sebastian got headache, ahh, it is not the logic, explain explain explain, well maybe not so logical...
　　Then I asked, why God only save souls that believe Him? It doesn't sound very kind, for Budha will save you whenever you believe him or not because he's so mercy.
　　At this point, Sebastian agree, that's why he likes Budha's idea, too.

　　So, you see. Today, it's almost the same question.
　　Then I asked a top stupid question when Christmas holiday is mentioned: So what happened on Christmas? Only Santa things?
　　No, on Christmas Jesus was born.
　　Ash! Obviously I am totally confused by all Jesus things.
　　
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dropin 2005-3-31 4:50

　　well, actually it is hard NOT to be confused by christian belief ..
　　and you forgot to mention, that i left church, so i am officially not a christ.
　　
　　looking forward to further discussion!
　　sebastian