Reflections of a Man's Heart

How long have we forgotten how to listen!

He planted us once to listen

Planted us like lyme grass by the eternal sea,

We wanted to grow on fat pastures,

To stand like lettuce in the kitchen garden.

 

Although we have business

That leads us far

From his light,

Although we drink tap water,

And only as it dies it reaches

Our eternally thirsting mouths -

Although we walk down a street

Beneath which earth has been silenced

By a pavement

We must not sell our ears,

Oh, we must not sell our ears.

Even in the market,

In the computation of dust,

Many had made a quick leap

Onto the tightrope of longing.

Because they heard something,

And leapt out of the dust

And sated their ears.

Press, oh press in the day of destruction

The listening ear to the earth,

And you will hear, through your sleep

You will hear,

How in death

Life beings.

 

- Nelly Sachs