steps
i haven’t put a poem up on this blog in a pretty long time. this one isn’t mine, but yesterday as i was parked outside VDP waiting for my class to start i read this in the eranos papers while we were having a terrific lightening storm, & it was rather striking (pun absolutely intended), not because it is any different from your average “transcend this life” poem, but because it is simple:
As every blossom fades and all youth sinks
into old age, so every life’s design,
each flower of wisdom, every good, attains
its prime and cannot last forever.
at life’s each call the hear must be prepared
to take its leave and to commence afresh,
courageously and with no hint of grief
submit itself to other, newer ties.
A magic dwells in each beginning and
protecting us it tells us how to live.
High-purposed we must traverse realm on realm
cleaving to none as to a home. The world
of spirit wishes not to fetter us
but raise us higher, further, step by step.
Scarce in some safe accustomed sphere of life
have we established house, than we grow lax;
he only who is ready to inspan
and journey forth can throw old habits off.
Maybe death’s hour too will send us out
new-born toward undreamed-of lands, maybe
life’s call to us will never find an end…
Courage, my hear, take leave and fare thee well!
- stufen by herman hesse (translated by mervyn savill)
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