Reflections of a Man's Heart

A note waterfalls steadily

through us,

just below hearing.

Or this early light

streaming through dusty glass:

what enters, enters like that,

unstoppable gift.

And yet there is also the other,

the breath-space held between any call

and its answer -

In the querying

first scuff of footstep,

the wood owls' repeating,

the two-counting heart:

A little sabbath,

minnow whose brightness silvers past time.

The rest-note,

unwritten,

hinged between worlds,

that precedes change and allows it.

- Jane Hirshfield, The October Palace

I fell

because of wisdom,

but was not destroyed:

though her I dived

into the  great sea,

and in those depths

I seized

a wealth-bestowing pearl.

I descended

like the great iron anchor

men use to steady their ships

in the night on rough seas,

and holding up the bright lamp

that I there received,

I climbed the rope

to the boat of understanding.

While in the dark sea,

I slept,

and not overwhelmed there,

dreamt: a star

blazed in my womb.

I marveled

at that light,

and grasped it,

and brought it up to the sun.

I laid hold upon it,

and will not let it go.

- Makeda, queen of Sheba

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

- e. e. cummings

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

Nosotros somos quien somos. ¡Basta de Historia y de cuentos!
¡Allá los muertos! Que entierren como Dios manda a sus muertos.

No vivimos del pasado, ni damos cuerda al recuerdo.
Somos, turbia y fresca, un agua que atropella sus comienzos.

Somos el ser que se crece. Somos un río derecho.
Somos el golpe temible de un corazón no resuelto.

Somos bárbaros, sencillos. Somos a muerte lo ibero
que aún nunca logró mostrarse puro, entero y verdadero.

De cuanto fue nos nutrimos, transformándonos crecemos
y así somos quienes somos golpe a golpe y muerto a muerto.

¡A la calle!, que ya es hora de pasearnos a cuerpo
y mostrar que, pues vivimos, anunciamos algo nuevo.

No reniego de mi origen, pero digo que seremos
mucho más que lo sabido, los factores de un comienzo.

Españoles con futuro y españoles que, por serlo,
aunque encarnan lo pasado no pueden darlo por bueno.

Recuerdo nuestros errores con mala saña y buen viento.
Ira y luz, padre de España, vuelvo a arrancarte del sueño.

Vuelvo a decirte quién eres. Vuelvo a pensarte, suspenso.
Vuelvo a luchar como importa y a empezar por lo que empiezo.

No quiero justificarte como haría un leguleyo.
Quisiera ser un poeta y escribir tu primer verso.

España mía, combate que atormentas mis adentros,
para salvarme y salvarte, con amor te deletreo.

- Gabriel Celaya, Cantos Íberos

당신이 아니라
내 안의 당신이 소중합니다
당신이 나를 있는 그대로 사랑해준 것이 아니라
당신으로 인해 내가 있는 그대로의 나의 아름다움을
발견합니다.

나의 미래는 당신이 아니라
내 자신에게 있음을
나의 선택에 있을 것임을 압니다.

그러므로
이순간
나는 당신을
선택하고 싶고
당신을 선택하였습니다
그리고
당신이 나를 선택하였음
느낍니다.

^^

it may not always be so;and i say
that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch
another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart,as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know,or such
great writhing words as,uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be,i say if this should be-
you of my heart,send me a little word;
that i may go unto him,and take his hands,
saying,Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

- e. e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings

A string of jewels

from a broken necklace,

scattering -

more difficult to keep hold of

even than these is one's life.

- Izumi Shikibu

We were together

Only a little while,

And we believed our love

Would last a thousand years.

- Otomo No Yakamochi