The inner ideality and the external reality are my roses and tigers, sometimes tender, sometimes fierce. This kind of struggle constitutes my truest state of mind now. Looking back at the confusion, joy or loss, I love the rose in my heart, and admire the lively tiger in my heart. I stop and look around, but the tiger is roaring, and the rose is faintly fragrant?
The tiger is sniffing the roses
One hard and one soft
But so blended
Therefore
as hard as cold stone
There is still a weak lotus in my heart
——Siegfried Sassoon