Saw Act of Valor… and was very moved by the final poem to his son:

Live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart. 

Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.

When you rise in the morning, give
thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.

When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray
for a little more time to live their lives over again
in a different way.

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

The Moon in a Well (詠井中月) by Yi Gyu Bo

山僧貪月色
幷汲一甁中
到寺方應覺
甁傾月亦空

산승탐월색
병급일병중
도사방응각
병경월역공

A mountain monk grew enamored of the moonlight,
So he drew moonlit water in a bottle at a well.
But when he reached the temple, he discovered
That when the bottle was emptied, the moonlight too was gone.

Lesson: Human desires are fleeting and illusory.

Came across this beautiful poem during Episode 2 of The Moon that Embraces the Sun where the Crown Prince is reminded, through this poem, that ”bottled-up moonlight is impossible to have, so what would be the point of remembering a young girl’s mistake?”  i.e., Just as bottling up moonlight is absurd and foolish; so it is with remembering another’s mistake.

Definitely needed to hear this.

Franz von Stuck, Cupid at the Masquerade, ca. 1887/88

Love the colors. (by SnowSkadi)