Sunday, 18 August 2024

ABOUT TEARS AND LAUGHTER

 

          ABOUT TEARS AND LAUGHTER

If a person is in a tearful state, he is crying, weeping, sobbing, wailing, emotionally upset, sad, sorrowful, melancholy, extremely unhappy, has been hurt by some event, has suffered a loss or some unexpected defeat. 

There may be any situation of grief which is relieved by shedding tears. Psychologists believe that tears have a soothing effect, help in relieving pain, liberate from depressive mood, etc.

Laughter is the opposite of crying. It shows a state of amusement, good humour, merriment, gaiety, entertainment, hilarity, light-heartedness, joy, mirth, happiness, amusement, etc.

There is a wonderful book entitled Tears And Laughter by the Lebanese-American writer and poet Khalil Gibran(1883-1931).  It is a translated version from the Arabic by Anthony Rizcallah Perris. Given below is a short but very significant  extract from the Foreword of this book.

“I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitudes; nor would I be content with converting my tears, invited by my agonized self, into calm. It is my fervent hope that my whole life on earth will ever be tears and laughter.

Tears that purify my heart and reveal to me the secret of life and its     mystery,

Laughter that brings me closer to my fellow men;

Tears with which I join the broken-hearted,

Laughter that symbolizes joy over my very existence.”       

 

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

18th August 2024

 

 

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