There are only four sentences in the whole text of "Life is precious", and the whole poem: Life is precious, and love is more valuable; if it is for freedom, both can be thrown away.
Life is precious comes from "Freedom and Love" by the poet Petofi Sandor, a great Hungarian revolutionary poet and the founder of Hungarian national literature. He was born into a poor butcher family and lived a difficult life since childhood.
"Freedom and Love" is a short poem written by the Hungarian poet Petofi in 1847. It was translated by Yin Fu, a writer of the Leftist League, and spread by Lu Xun, and became well known to the majority of Chinese readers. Later, it was introduced into middle school Chinese textbooks and became one of the most familiar foreign poems to Chinese readers.
Author's background
In September 1846, 23-year-old Petofi met Sendele Yulia, the daughter of Count Ilnots, at a dance. The purity and frankness of this beautiful girl with a slender figure and light blue eyes made the young poet fall in love at first sight. However, the earl, who owned a large amount of land and estates, refused to marry his daughter to a poor poet like Petofi.
In the face of resistance, Petofi's feelings for Yulia could not be suppressed. Within half a year, he wrote love poems one after another, such as "To Yulia", "I am a person with love". "People", "What you love is spring", "The desolate autumn wind whispers in the woods", "Give me twenty kisses at once", etc. The treasures in these lyric poems encouraged Yulia to break through the shackles of her father and family, and entered the wedding hall with Petofi a year later.
At this moment, a torrent of revolution has surged across Europe, and the Hungarian people’s uprising is also like surging lava. Petofi's honeymoon was filled with joy and melancholy. Unwilling to indulge in his private life, he wrote the famous epigram "Freedom and Love".