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To Live QUOTES

To Live QUOTES

1 " Your life is given to you by your parents. If you don't want to live, you have to ask them first. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

2 " It’s better to live an ordinary life. If you go on striving for this and that, you’ll end up paying with your life. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

3 " No matter how lucky a person is, the moment he decides he wants to die, there's nothing that will keep him alive. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

4 " As the black night descended from the heavens, I knew that in the blink of an eye I would witness the death of the sunset. I saw the exposed and firm chest of the vast earth; its pose was one of calling, of beckoning. And just as a mother beckons her children, so the earth beckoned the coming of night. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

5 " The emperor beckons me; he wants me to marry his daughter.
The road to the capital is long and distant; I don't want her. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

6 " It was just as summer arrived that I met an old man named Fugui. "

― Yu Hua , To Live

7 " 活着，在我们中国的语言里充满了力量，它的力量不是来自于叫喊，也不是来自于进攻，而是忍受，去忍受生命赋予我们的责任，去忍受现实给予我们的幸福和苦难、无聊和平庸。 "

― Yu Hua , To Live

8 " This “me” of ten years before lay down amid the leaves and long grass and slept for two whole hours. During this time a few ants crawled up my leg, but even in my deep sleep my finger accurately flicked them off. I felt as if I had come to a shore, and the echoing shouts of an old man poling a bamboo raft seemed to reach my ears from far away. I awakened from my dream, and "

― Yu Hua , To Live

9 " the voice calling out was actually crisp and clear. After I turned around I saw an old man in one of the nearby fields patiently trying to coax an old ox into working. The ox, probably already exhausted from plowing the field, stubbornly lowered his head and refused to move. The bare-chested old man leaned on the plough behind his beast, seemingly frustrated by the ox’s attitude. I heard his bright voice say to the ox, “Oxen plough the fields, dogs watch over the house, monks beg for alms, chickens call at the break of day and women do the weaving. Have you ever heard of an ox that didn’t plough the land? This is a truth that has been with us since ancient times. Come on, let’s go.” The "

― Yu Hua , To Live

10 " weary old ox, after hearing the old man’s lesson, raised his head as if admitting his mistake. Pulling the plow, he began to move forward. I noticed the old man’s back was just as black as the ox’s. Even though the pair had already entered the twilight of their lives, they still managed to noisily plough the rugged land, the earth breaking up like a wave crashing on the shore. Afterward I heard the old man’s hoarse yet moving voice sing an old folk song. First he sang a long introductory melody, then came two lines of verse: "

― Yu Hua , To Live

11 " The emperor beckons me; he wants me to marry his daughter. The road to the capital is long and distant; I don’t want her. "

― Yu Hua , To Live