Though my knowledge of written Chinese is practically nil, I am manifestly attracted to the beauty of the characters. I want so much to be able to decipher the words, particularly the wisdom contained in pithy sayings of my father and mother and those who came before them. That's why I'm spending some time figuring out how to work with Chinese on a computer and why I'm reading A Thousand Pieces of Gold : Growing Up Through China's Proverbs. Sometimes I just like looking at the strokes of the characters even if I don't know what it all means.

There are plenty of Chinese proverbs explained in the book -- and I wanted to share some of my reflections on them as I went along. I was afraid that I would not be able to represent them in Chinese (since a number of the proverbs are not written out in Chinese but only represented in their PinYin romanization). Fortunately, the author provides a webpage listing all the proverbs of the book in Chinese.

For example,

落 葉 歸 根 (Luo Ye Gui Gen) means "Falling leaves return to their roots."

Lots of resonsance there for me as I ponder where my own roots are and where I may end up falling.