Magazine

The Power of Music
by Niko Zhai
Translator: Florence Chen, Sherlotte Jin

What most deeply moves people is music. Nobody can remain unmoved by music unless he/she is aurally or mentally impaired.
In fact, happiness, anger, grief and joy are all expressed through our senses. Our emotions would be much enhanced if combined with music.
I am particularly fond of listening to music alone to dispel melancholy.
When the night is quiet, I like tositback alone, reading or drinking tea,with music playing. Totally immersed in a fantasy world of mine, with flowers blooming and lights dreamy,my heart is filled with beautiful thoughts, and music and I become one. Music lifts me up and makes my spirits soar. Before long, my sadness is gone.
Of our emotions, happiness is the one that most of us like to share with others. It is a release through which we understand each other without words. A glance is enough to convey our thoughts. It is like the blank space artfully left on a painting that is silent but speaks volume. This is a moment when you understand happiness and appreciate the power of sharing happiness.
That is not the case when we are painful. We can share great happiness, anger or sadness with friends and relatives unreservedly so that the emotions couldsubside, to the point where we can dab away the blood and wipe away the tears.
However, pain is kept in our heart and triggered by our memories to torture us, like having a wound ripped open, again and again. The worst kind of pain is which we have to keep hidden for a long time and which is neither discovered nor understood by others. This kind of deep suffering makes life seem almost meaningless.
When we are inconsolable, when our heart has turned into ashes, we feel alone and detached from the world,even on a brightest spring day. No matter how others try to comfort us, we are unable to go back to the days of innocence when the skies were blue, the heart was light, the dreams were beautiful, and the smiles abound.
The best way to ease our pain is to adjust our mentality. A walk outside to enjoy the natural scenery may be good, but we may be limited by time and place. Reading classics helps us appreciate the wisdom of the ages, because, through reading, our stress is gradually relieved, like a murmuring brook quenching the thirst of our soul, also like a ray of light shining into the dark corners of ourheart. However, despite all that, we remain cuddled up with our sadness, sealed in our own shadow of reminiscence.
Enters music, and the closed door to our heart is finally open, our feelings are given wings to fly, our cells are energized, and a sense of comfort comes over us.
The other day when I heard the songScarborough Fair, I suddenly had this unprecedented feeling of brightness and peacefulness. Although I didn’t understand the lyrics, the gentle melody was like a heavenly hymn, soothing my soul and filling me with peace.
Beautiful melodies are like fragrant flowers, sparkling morning dew, brightening our heart with sunshine. Like a symphony of all of the senses, music is truly a powerful art form, physically and spiritually!

2013/7/31

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