Melancholy: The Happiness of Being Sad

SKETCHNOTES

UNTRANSLATABLE WORD FOR SADNESS

The Japanese word, Hi Fun Kou Gai, means a kind of righteous, miserable anger, a frustration and despair over a situation that seems terrible but cannot be changed. It’s like corruption in a government, or a friend's bad treatment. Hearing about this japanese word, I’m able to relate to it because a lot of the time this is how I feel. I tend to care a lot about a lot of things and sometimes I think I care to much. Many times I can get carried away with how I want to change or make a difference on the thing that I am caring about. In fact, most of the time, if the things and people that I really care about, cannot be helped or changed for the better, I will get very frustrated, especially when I know that change isn’t reachable. I will get so frustrated, that it will start to affect me even though nothing is directly happening to me. I think I get the most frustrated, mad, and sad when I’m not able to change or make a positive impact on a situation or with people. Sometimes I’m not able to help them by changing the way they think or feel, because our perspectives and how we think are so different. When people are raised differently: perspectives, values, and morals, can be difficult to understand. Some people aren’t able to understand because their not able to grasp and comprehend what is said. It’s like you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink the water, and in this case you can’t lead the horse to drink water because it’s not in their vocabulary.

MELANCHOLY QUOTE

“I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us.” ― Hermann Hesse, Peter Camenzind

"ODE TO MELANCHOLY," BY KEATS

From the poem called "Ode to Melancholy,” by poet Keats my favorite line is “Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,” because it suggests about what the sufferer as a replacement of the things he forbade. So, as said from the line, when afflicted with “the melancholy fit,” the sufferer should instead overwhelm his sorrow with natural beauty, glutting it on the morning rose. I like how this line is trying to help the sufferer cope. This line is phrased in a elegant way.