Love is of
source unknown, yet it grows ever deeper.
The living may die of it, by
its power the dead live again. Love is not love at its fullest if one
who lives is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life
one who has died.
And must love that comes in dream necessarily be unreal? For there is no lack of dream lovers in this world.
Only for those whose love must be fulfilled on the pillow, and for whom affection deepens only after retirement from office, is it an entirely corporeal matter.
Preface to The Peony Pavillion
Tang Xianzu, 1598
LOVE
