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Writer's pictureQingsong Xiao

Melancholy Journal



悲憤慷慨 (ひふんこうがい/ Hi Fun Kuo Gai): a righteous, miserable anger, a frustration and despair over a situation that seems terrible but cannot be changed.


I resonate deeply with this term because I usually find flaws in others which upset me. For me, I would become 悲憤慷慨 to see someone wasting resources. An example would be seeing others wasting food. I feel guilty to not finish my plate (except when the food is extremely awful or I am not physiologically well) because 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life (which is one-ninth of the human population). I would be 悲憤慷慨 to see others feel nonchalant after throwing away food not eaten.


“Melancholy: an appetite no misery satisfies.”  ― Emil Cioran, All Gall Is Divided: Aphorisms

My favorite part of “Ode on Melancholy” is:


“His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,

              And be among her cloudy trophies hung.”


I like this part of the ode because it manifests the true nature of beauty: Pleasure and melancholy are linked because nothing that brings you pleasure lasts forever. Beauty is fleeting, after all. And once that beauty or pleasure fades, what's left is grief at its loss — or melancholy.

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