#007 shě bù dé /捨不得
The beautiful view that makes one linger on / 讓人捨不得離開的美景
How can you cut to the heart to …?
A classic Mandarin song goes like this, “ I am the one who loves you the most, how can you cut to the heart to make me sad?” Depending on the context, the word, (捨得), may correspond to various translations in English. The first character, 捨，means to be willing to give up, to discard, or to be part with something or someone. The second character, 得, means to get, to gain, or to obtain. This is one of the many interesting words I found in Chinese when teaching. “shě dé” also means “being willing to give” , such as “Parents are willing to spare no expense in providing their children while stinting themselves, wearing worn clothes and shoes.”
你怎麼捨得…?
有一首經典華語歌是這麼唱著的：「最愛你的人是我，你怎麼捨得我難過？」捨得一詞因語境的不同而有不同的英文翻譯。捨得的「捨」指的是「願意割捨，丟棄或是與物品或人分離」。捨得的「得」則有「獲取、獲得、取得」的意思。捨得或是捨不得是我在教書時覺得最有趣的詞之一。「捨得」還有「不吝惜」的意思，如：「父母捨得為孩子花大錢，卻捨不得花錢在自己身上，穿著破衣破鞋」。
shě bù dé (捨不得)
The word “shě bù dé (捨不得)” can be translated to “reluctant”. “Last night, I had a sweet dream. I was reluctant to wake up from it this morning” or “The party last was so enjoyable that I was reluctant to leave.” When leaving for the Netherlands for work years ago, my late grandmother used to have the very look of “捨不得“ on her face, with her hands gripping mine.
捨不得
「捨不得」可以翻作英文的「to be reluctant」，如：「昨晚做了個美夢，我今早捨不得醒來。」或是「昨晚的聚會氣氛太好了，我捨不得讓離開。」多年前每次要回到荷蘭工作前，我已故阿嬤臉上深深的捨不得，她的手緊握著我的不忍心分離的場景，大概是想到「捨不得」的意象時最好的寫照之一吧。
“ If you are willing to give up something, you gain something. ”
As the saying goes,“If are you willing to give up some, you gain some. If you are not willing to give up anything, you gain nothing. If are you willing to give up a little bit, you gain a little bit. If you are willing to give up a lot, you gain a lot”. The concept, shě (捨), is involved in the well-known KonMari method when it comes to decluttering (Japanese: 断捨離; だんしゃり). The concept of 斷捨離(decluttering) originated from Japan. It literally means that “cut off fro the things that you don’t need; to be part with redundant things; and detaching from the objects that you are attached to”. Being unwilling to part with the objects they don’t need or even to the extent of hoarding can cause inconvenience in life. Whether you are a fan of KonMari method or not, you might hear another famous concept in this method. That is, if the object still “sparks joy”. During this process, we can learn that if we still need, for example, a coat which we bought three years ago but only worn it for a few times. We may think about if this coat still fits us, if we still need it, or if it it still sparks joy. We get to know more about ourself during this weighing process.
「有捨有得」
俗話說：「有捨有得，不捨不得，小捨小得，大捨大得」。「捨」在日本收納女王近藤麻理惠的斷捨離收納法就是其中一個關鍵概念。「斷捨離」這一概念從日本開始流行起來，即「斷絕不需要的東西；捨去多餘的事物；脫離對物品的執著」。捨不得丟掉不再需要的東西，或是家裡囤積一堆多餘的物品在生活上會造成不便。無論你有沒有遵循斷捨離的原則，大概多少都聽過其中的這件物品是否仍讓你「怦然心動」的說法。在割捨與得到的過程中，比方說，想想三年前買的那件只穿過幾次的大衣是否還需要留下來，當下是否仍適合，是否仍需要，是否仍讓你怦然心動，在捨與得的斟酌思量的過程中更能了解自己。
If you are interested in this topic, here are some articles to read.要是你對這個話題有興趣，這裡有些文章可閱讀。