Be patient towards all that
is unresolved in your heart...
try to adore questions, so similar to
locked rooms and books written
in a foreign language.
Don't seek now those answers that can't be given to you
for you wouldn't be able to live with them.
Living is everything. Live the questions now.
Maybe you shall receive it, without you noticing it,
to live the distant
day in which you'll have the answer.
Remember Barbara
It rained endlessly on Brest on that day
And you walked smiling
Radiant enchanted dripping-wet
In the rain
Remember Barbara
It was raining endlessly on Brest
And I came across you in the Rue de Siam
You were smiling
And I smiled the same
Remember Barbara
You whom I did not know
You who did not know me
Remember
Remember even though that very day
Forget not
A man, under a porch, was sheltering
And he called your name
Barbara
And you ran towards him in the rain
Dripping-wet enchanted radiant
And you threw yourself into his arms
Remember that, Barbara
And do not resent it if I call you: "tu"
I say "tu" to everyone I love
Even if I have seen them only once
I say" tu" to all who love each other
Even if I do not know them
Remember Barbara
Forget not
The quiet and happy rain
Hereon your happy face
Hereon the happy town
The rain hereon the merry sea
On the arsenal
On the shuttle boat to Ushant
Oh Barbara
What a bloody farce the war
What's become of you now
In the rain of iron
Of fire, of steel of blood
And the one who clasped you in his arms
Lovingly
Is he now dead, missing, or still alive
Oh Barbara
It's raining endlessly on Brest
As it rained before
But now it is not the same, and all set abased
It is a rain of mourning, terrible and desolate
Now it is even no longer the storm
Of iron, of steel of blood
Merely clouds
That go coma like dogs
Dogs that go missing
Along the current over Brest
And will go pouring in the far
In the very far away from Brest
Of which there is nothing left.
The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?
See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile.
Don't wait to finish university,
to fall in love,
to find a job,
to get married,
to have children,
to see them settle down,
to lose those ten pounds,
for friday evening to arrive or sunday morning,
spring,
autumn or winter.
There isn't a better moment than this to be happy.
Happiness is a path, not a destination.
Work as if you didn't need money,
love as if no one ever hurt you and dance, as if no one saw you.
Remember that the skin wrinkles up,
the hair turns white and the days become years.
But the important things don't change: your strength and conviction have no age.
Your spirit is the duster that wipes away any cobweb.
Behind every goal is a new start.
Behind every result is a new challenge. While you're alive, feel alive.
Go on, even when everyone expects you to give up.
Three matches one by one struck in the night
The first to see your face in its entirety
The second to see your eyes
The last to see your mouth
And the darkness all around to remind me of all these
As I hold you in my arms.
I often repeat silently
that you must live in rememberance only
when few days are left to me.
What is past
is as if never was.
The past is a lace that
clenches at my throat to my mind
and takes energy from facing my present.
The past is only the smoke
of who hasn't lived.
What I have already seen
doesn't mean anything anymore.
The past and the future
aren't reality but only fleeting illusions.
I must be free from time
and live the present since there isn't any other time
than this wonderful moment.
We are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.
One is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.
But age is the total of
our doing.
They have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.
Not their fault?
Whose fault?
Mine?
I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.
Age is no crime
but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life
among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives
is.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies -
The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King.