Chapter 10 Dream

In a field, on the bank of a clear stream, I saw a bird cage, woven by skilled craftsmen.In one corner of the cage lay a dead bird, in the other corner was a small pot whose water had long been drained, and another small pot whose rice had long since been eaten. I stood there without saying a word.I listened intently, as if there were golden words in the sound of the dead bird and the stream in the cave, enlightening my conscience and probing my heart.I looked carefully, and then I knew that although the little bird was by the stream, it had struggled to death because of thirst; although the little bird was in the cradle of life—in the field, it had struggled with death because of hunger.This is like a rich man, locked in a vault, starving to death in the pile of money.

After a while, I saw that the cage suddenly turned into a transparent human shape, and the dead bird turned into a human heart. There was a deep wound in the heart, from which drips of bright red blood flowed out. Like the lips of a sad woman. Then, I heard the voice from the wound with drips of blood: "I am the heart of man, the captive of matter, the victim of the laws of the world. In the field of beauty, beside the source of life, I was shut up in the cage of the statutes that men made for poets; in the cradle of virtue, in the hands of love, I died in obscurity. For virtue and love's fruits were denied me. All that I longed for, according to the world's opinion , are disgraceful; everything I pursue, judged by people's prejudices, is contemptible.

"I am the heart of man, I am imprisoned in the darkness of worldly conventions, and become weak; I am chained to fantasy, dying; I am abandoned in a corner of the maze of civilization, and die silently. And people are silent Yan, turned a blind eye, just stood aside with a smile." I heard the words and saw them come from that wounded heart, with drops of blood.After that, I saw nothing and heard nothing again.