he read this poem, among others. i like that it comes from him, i mean how i found it here (online), too. and gerard manley hopkins as reclusive. and the larders mentioned, the people from the ponds and why our bodies would be --. theory in 1982.
On Living
Nazim Hikmet
I
Living is no laughing matter:
you must live with great seriousness
like a squirrel, for example --
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
you must take it seriously,
so much so and to such a degree
that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
your back to the wall,
or else in a laboratory
in your white coat and safety glasses,
you can die for people --
even for people whose faces you've never seen,
even though you know living
is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees --
and not for your children, either,
but because although you fear death you don't believe it,
because living, I mean, weighs heavier.
II
Let's say we're seriously ill, need surgery --
which is to say we might not get up
from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see if it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
for the latest newscast. . .
Let's say we're at the front --
for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
we might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We'll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind --
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.
III
This earth will grow cold,
a start among starts
and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet --
I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space. . .
You must grieve for this right now
-- you have to feel this sorrow now --
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived" . . .
/
from "That Nature is A Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection"
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Enough! the Resur-
rection,
A heart's clarion! Away grief's grasping, joyless days, de-
jection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; ...
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond
i can't believe i shared a room with gerald stern, and had a chance to listen to him read poetry and talk about friends.
just, sigh. you know how it is for me, things. i'll keep the yellow ribbon, try not to lose it with the pin, not for anything but because i got to hear gerald stern, and just enjoy it, just enjoy it.
On Living
Nazim Hikmet
I
Living is no laughing matter:
you must live with great seriousness
like a squirrel, for example --
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
you must take it seriously,
so much so and to such a degree
that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
your back to the wall,
or else in a laboratory
in your white coat and safety glasses,
you can die for people --
even for people whose faces you've never seen,
even though you know living
is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees --
and not for your children, either,
but because although you fear death you don't believe it,
because living, I mean, weighs heavier.
II
Let's say we're seriously ill, need surgery --
which is to say we might not get up
from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see if it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
for the latest newscast. . .
Let's say we're at the front --
for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
we might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We'll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind --
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.
III
This earth will grow cold,
a start among starts
and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet --
I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space. . .
You must grieve for this right now
-- you have to feel this sorrow now --
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived" . . .
/
from "That Nature is A Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection"
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Enough! the Resur-
rection,
A heart's clarion! Away grief's grasping, joyless days, de-
jection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; ...
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond
i can't believe i shared a room with gerald stern, and had a chance to listen to him read poetry and talk about friends.
just, sigh. you know how it is for me, things. i'll keep the yellow ribbon, try not to lose it with the pin, not for anything but because i got to hear gerald stern, and just enjoy it, just enjoy it.