我本將心託明月 (chop suey)

Recently I’ve read a book by George Kao, where he talks about how he has started to translate the American novel “The Great Gatsby.” He mentions that 林以亮 (lin2 yi3 liang4) has once used the poetic line “我本將心託明月(wuo3 ben3 jiang xin tuo ming2 yue4)，誰知明月照溝渠 (shei2 zhi ming2 yue4 zhao4 gou qu2 ” as a conclusion to the theme of this novel.

Literally the line means “I meant to trust my heart to the moon, only to find her shining on the ditches.” When you treat someone with unreserved trust and sincerity but end up being treated relentlessly, this is a line you can use to show your disappointment and regret.

We can say that all Gatsby has done in his life is spurred by his obsession with Daisy, an attractive but shallow woman who once was in a romantic relationship with him. He goes from rags to riches as a bootlegger, moves to Daisy’s neighborhood and throws lavish parties in the hope that she will come. In the end he even gives away his life playing a scapegoat for her.

Gatsby’s life is built on an illusion that is created by his clinging to the past and his obsession with Daisy. He sacrifices his life for this nostalgic complex, but Daisy, the very center of this illusion, doesn’t even show up at his funeral. (As a matter of fact, few people do.)

To me, this is a novel about disillusion. Somehow more or less we have to experience such a disillusion in our own life. We create lots of beautiful bubbles and eventfully have to watch them broken, no matter how they have once made this world amazingly colorful. When people feel they’re taken for granted or mistreated like Gatsby, they may look up, take a sigh and utter the line, 我本將心託明月，誰知明月照溝渠!

我本將心託明月，誰知明月照溝渠

=我本将心托明月，谁知明月照沟渠