Clay and Water

In my younger years, sometime around 1975, I was introduced to Lin Yutang’s book titled Importance of Living by my (then) boss David Tay, a renowned interior designer, when I was working in his design firm after dropping out from school.

When I had my fingers on the clay at Cikgu Iskandar Jalil’s clay and pottery workshop yesterday morning (together with my son Mus’ab and my colleagues) Lin Yutang’s work that I read decades ago suddenly came to mind.

One of the flashes was on the analogy of clay and water in human marriage.

Madame Kuan, wife of the great Yuan painter Chao Mengfu, expressed the analogy a very long time ago. Madame Kuan was herself a painter and teacher at the Imperial Court. When Chao was thinking of taking a mistress, Madame Kuan wrote the following poem, which touched his heart and changed his mind:

Twixt you and me
There’s too much emotion.
That’s the reason why
There’s such a commotion!
Take a lump of clay,
Wet it, pat it,
And make an image of me,
And make an image of you.
Then smash them, crash them,
And add a little water.
Break them and re-make them,
Into an image of you,
And an image of me,
Then in my clay, there’s a little of you,
And in your clay, there’s a little of me,
And nothing ever shall we sever;
Living, we’ll sleep in the same quilt,
And dead, we’ll be buried together.

{Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living}

I shared this very poem with my wife when we got married in 1983.
Today, 25 years on and with 5 beautiful children,
I (re)dedicate this poem to her – and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day.

11 May 2008