#this poet Qu Yuan lived and wrote this sooo long ago and I am here from the future also feeling like my biggest joy is seeing beauty in

[heartoftheancientsea]

“All men have something in their lives that gives them pleasure:

With me the love of beauty is my constant joy.

I could not change this, even if my body were dismembered;

For how could dismemberment ever hurt my mind?”

— Excerpt from the poem Li Sao by Qu Yuan from The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets

#Qu Yuan #this part made me cry #because like!!! this poetry is from thousands of years ago and I can still relate to it in the year 2020 #I am so grateful that I can read this #do you ever just think about how women and lower class people just WERENT ALLOWED TO READ until relatively recently?!?!? #but anyway here I am sitting here reading this ancient poetry and the human experience has hardly changed at all #things like technology has evolved and whatever but the inner human experience and struggle will forever reach across time... culture...etc #this poet Qu Yuan lived and wrote this sooo long ago and I am here from the future also feeling like my biggest joy is seeing beauty in #everything #and I love it!!! #<3