It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
the sky day by day I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow.I take pride in this great wall, and I plaster it with dust and sandlest a least hole should be left in this name;and for all the care I take I lose sight of my true being.
Would you drive me off, saying to me, ‘Get away, you naughtylittle puppy?’Then go, mother, go! I will never come to you when you callme, and never let you feed me any more.If I were only a little green parrot, and not your baby,mother dear, would you keep me chained lest I should fly away?Would…
Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; andthe bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.Now it is time to…
play the fool in public;If you empty your bag in a night,and snap your fingers at prudence;If you walk in curious paths andplay with useless things;Reck not rhyme or reason;If unfurling your sails before thestorm you snap the rudder in two,Then I will follow you, comrade,and be drunken and go to the dogs.I have wasted…
peering at the firmament –It longs to pierce the black cloud-ceilingand fly away, away,if only it had wings.The tree seems to express its wishin the tossing of its head:its fronds heave and swish –It thinks, Maybe my leaves are feathers,and nothing stops me nowfrom rising on their flutter.All day the fronds the windblown treesoar and…
Leave all thy burdens on his hands who can bear all,and never look behind in regret.Thy desire at once puts out the light from the lamp it touches with its breath.It is unholy—take not thy gifts through its unclean hands.Accept only what is offered by sacred love.
