够了吧 - mauriceling/mauriceling.github.io GitHub Wiki

俗事何为够
一生才不漏
够字一句多
开花不结果
多在夕夕下
几夕才是恰
古人造字时
智慧入骨刺
多少才算够
足以有留后
这题无人答
自答便是啦
— 22/11/19

Commentary: When I was in Primary 4, right before exams, my Chinese teacher when through the entire textbook and asked us to clarify any words/phrases that we did not understand and one of the terms I asked was "什么是‘不够’？“ (What is “not enough”?) 30 years later, I am still having trouble defining what is enough and what is not.

How much work is enough for the day? For the year? For a lifetime? How much money or status is enough? How much enjoyment or pleasure is enough? How much happiness is enough? How many pairs of shoes or shirt or anything is enough? How many close friends is enough? How much productivity is enough? How high a GDP is enough?

I dare to say, I had not seen anyone who can answer even half of the 10 questions above.

The Chinese character, 够, is made up of 2 words, 句 (sentence) and 多 (many). Many sentences is enough. How many is many? How many is too many? Or even closer, how many is one too many? The Chinese word of many, 多, is made up of 2 of the same word, 夕, which can be translated to “evening” or “the end of a day or some defined events”. Hence, many (多) is a recursive term of many evenings or many days. How many days is enough for anything? How many days is enough for a life?

The words 够 (enough) and 多 (many) seems to tell me that nobody can ever say what enough for anyone, maybe except for themselves, if they have the courage and will of mind to limit the boundless. Only by limiting the boundless, it will ever be enough.

I think I am getting to an answer now…