2017

LOVE AS THE STONE

Love as the Stone

After nearly a whole month of ignoring my existence, you decided to say goodbye in a cruel way - by text not even a phone call. I tried to call back and reach you any way I could, but I failed. Technology, what a great invention, it seems to make a long-distance relationship become possible, but now you blocked me on all social media. Technology seems to help you successfully deny my existence again. The whole night I was sitting in front of my laptop, my brain blank, my grief so sincere and overwhelming. I remember Sophie Calle had a piece called Doleur Exquise (Exquisite Pain), she wrote down her heartbreaking story 36 times over 36 days to pardon her grief. Exactly, writing it down! Maybe that is the solution for the moment.
I started to write down all the words that I wanted to tell you so badly, those I’ll never get chance to tell you. It started from Mandarin (my native language) and then I tried my best to translate it to English (the language we communicate with). After that I used google to translate it to Korean (your native language). I stared at the copy of the letter without recognition. 
If we spoke the same native language would we still find each other attractive? I kept thinking about it. How the language diluted our feelings for each other. How those mistranslations made us misunderstand each other.


One year passed since then. Hey, how is your heart doing?
Kengwu Lin 21/05/2017