2008年9月12日 星期五

聽 - listen with ear and heart

‘That’s me. I am a Cancer in a Cancer country.’ Tane said.

I tried to rectify. ‘Even the other one is Pisces, it doesn’t mean there must be the most romantic...’

‘I know. The supreme romantics comes from Cancer and Pisces, but a Cancer and a Pisce do not necessarily make it.’ Tane smiled, ‘not any Cancer nor Pisces.’

I smiled and nodded, ‘Good. You understand.’

Later, to his request, I wrote down the Chinese form of his name:

He looked at the first world with suspicion, ‘It looks knotty. What does it mean? It couldn’t possibly be the same meaning.’

‘You see, that’s the ear, the upper left, and it’s the heart down there at the lower right.’

Tane seemed getting something. ‘You add the heart to the ear? That’s...clever.’

‘Yeah, in Chinese, clever is 聰明, meaning good at hearing and seeing. So, you’ve got the ear with the first word 聽. And not only the hearing instinct, you listen with your heart.’

Tane remained silent for a while. I knew he was trying to remember and think about all these. What a great kid.