我们有缘 (We were destined to meet)
The other night at a dinner party the topic of romance and star-crossed lovers came up.
A young guy said:
"I met this girl today on the subway and my heart started doin’ crazy stuff. There was definitely some kind of ‘positive affinity’ or what is often called 缘分 yuánfèn in Chinese."
The guy contined:
也许我们前世有缘
Yéxǔ wǒmen qiánshì yǒu yuán.
Perhaps we were related in a former life.
缘分 is often translated as a ‘predestined relationship.’ René was intrigued to know about relationships that were ‘meant or destined to be,’ so later that week he sent an e-mail to his Chinese language teacher.
She wrote back:
"缘分 is a positive affinity between two people. It is an opportunity to meet somebody, but what happens after that is not clear. Between a man and a woman, you can be destined to meet, but it doesn’t mean that you will necessarily end up falling in love or getting married. So you can have 缘 but no 分 (有缘， 没有分) which means that you can be predestined to meet, but don’t have the good fortune to be together."
René’s teacher was a firm believer in the forces of destiny and the meeting of two souls. She finished her e-mail with the following expression to reinforce predestined relationships:
有缘千里来相会
Yǒu yuán, qiānlǐ lái xiānghuì.
Though born a thousand li apart, souls which are one shall meet.
This was all fascinating to René, but he pondered for a moment that his true soul mate was in fact his own soul.
A young guy said:
"I met this girl today on the subway and my heart started doin’ crazy stuff. There was definitely some kind of ‘positive affinity’ or what is often called 缘分 yuánfèn in Chinese."
The guy contined:
也许我们前世有缘
Yéxǔ wǒmen qiánshì yǒu yuán.
Perhaps we were related in a former life.
缘分 is often translated as a ‘predestined relationship.’ René was intrigued to know about relationships that were ‘meant or destined to be,’ so later that week he sent an e-mail to his Chinese language teacher.
She wrote back:
"缘分 is a positive affinity between two people. It is an opportunity to meet somebody, but what happens after that is not clear. Between a man and a woman, you can be destined to meet, but it doesn’t mean that you will necessarily end up falling in love or getting married. So you can have 缘 but no 分 (有缘， 没有分) which means that you can be predestined to meet, but don’t have the good fortune to be together."
René’s teacher was a firm believer in the forces of destiny and the meeting of two souls. She finished her e-mail with the following expression to reinforce predestined relationships:
有缘千里来相会
Yǒu yuán, qiānlǐ lái xiānghuì.
Though born a thousand li apart, souls which are one shall meet.
This was all fascinating to René, but he pondered for a moment that his true soul mate was in fact his own soul.
oh my goodness i thought i only believe in this stuff.
ReplyDeleteit was my first trip in china, I met a guy. I chose my own chinese name, I have an affinity with the phoenix bird so ofcourse I chose phoenix as a name (fenghuan) feng for short suits a name. the guy i like gave me his family name jin as aparantly jin is good luck.
so there i am jin feng, and his name is jin long.
Little did I know that I will end up falling for this guy and he sure seems to like me!! and further more little did i know that in China the feng and the long symbolise marriage, the perfect unity between yin and yang, famininity and masculinity.
owwwwwwwww i sure hope he also sees this as a sign, to make him commited as much as I am to seeing this through.
at the moment we are long distance as i am in the uk and he is still in china, BUT LUCKILY he works from BELGIUM which is practically DOWN TO ROAD, seriously! its like 2 hours on the train!!!
alas, we are still in the beginning stages. i have many positive signs from him that he likes me such as taking his first day off in 3 months to spend with me, catering to my every need, always catching him looking at me and tapping his heart racily in relief when he realised that a note which he translated for me was from a girl, instead of a man!!!
Oh! and here is another magical thing!
Just before leaving China for the first time I wrote him a poem to say thank you for his kindness and generosity. I wrote the poem about a phoenix and dragon dancing together etc.
THIS WAS BEFORE I was told on the train of the symbology of these two.
Oh please wish me luck, this is truly a story I want to tell to my grandkids! heheheh
All the best to you!!!!!!