He is your field which you sow with love and reap
with thanksgiving.
ON BEAUTYAND a poet said, Speak to us of
Beauty.
ON BEAUTYAND a poet said, Speak to us of
Beauty.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its
morning and isrefreshed. And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very
woodthat was hollowed with knives?
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
riseswas oftentimes filled with your tears.
And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and
the forestsand the mountains. And he answered, saying:Your hearts know in silence
the secrets of the days and the nights.
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his
skin,and calls all others naked and shameless? ON BEAUTYAND a poet said, Speak to us
of Beauty. He sits alone on hill-tops and looks down upon our city. But regret is
the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement. You shall not dwell in tombs
made by the dead for the living.
And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. Therefore
let your visit to that temple invisible be for naughtbut ecstasy and sweet
communion. To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons fortheir
inconstancy. BUT sweeter still than laughter and greater than longing came to
me.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a
bitter breadthat feeds but half mans hunger. You shall not dwell in tombs made by
the dead for the living. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter
breadthat feeds but half mans hunger.
And when the unclean shall be no more, what were
modesty but a fetterand a fouling of the mind?
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know
its flood also. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to
perish.
And he answered:You delight in laying down laws,Yet
you delight more in breaking them. YOU are good when you walk to your goal firmly
and with bold steps. And when they reached my depth the streams and the rivers
ceased not yetto sing. And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows? Yet you
shall not deplore having known blindness,nor regret having been deaf.
That which is you dwells above the mountain and
roves with the wind.
In their fear your forefathers gathered you too
near together. It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeerat the
dignity of the flesh.
BUT you do not see, nor do you hear, and it is
well. And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. For the breath of life is in
the sunlight and the hand of lifeis in the wind.