Paul Celan (1920-1970) – I Hear

Paul Celan (1920-1970)

I hear, the Axe has flowered,
I hear, the Place is un-nameable,

I hear, the Bread, that looks on him,
heals the Hanged-Man,
the Bread, his Wife baked for him,

I hear, they name Life
our sole Refuge.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Sonnet XIV

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy;
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert:
 Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
 Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Buddha

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.

– Buddha

No Man Is an Island by John Donne (1572-1631)

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Buddha

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Buddha

Buddha

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

Buddha

Buddha

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

Buddha

Description of Love – Rumi (1207-1273)

A true lover is proved such by his pain of heart;
No sickness is there like sickness of heart.
The lover’s ailment is different from all ailments;
Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
A lover may hanker after this love or that love,
But at the last he is drawn to the KING of love.
However much we describe and explain love,
When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,
But love unexplained is clearer.
When pen hasted to write,
On reaching the subject of love it split in twain.
When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn.
In explaining it Reason sticks fast, as an ass in mire;
Naught but Love itself can explain love and lovers!
None but the sun can display the sun,
If you would see it displayed, turn not away from it.
Shadows, indeed, may indicate the sun’s presence,
But only the sun displays the light of life.
Shadows induce slumber, like evening talks,
But when the sun arises the ‘moon is split asunder.’
In the world there is naught so wondrous as the sun,
But the Sun of the soul sets not and has no yesterday.
Though the material sun is unique and single,
We can conceive similar suns like to it.
But the Sun of the soul, beyond this firmament,
No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract.
Where is there room in conception for His essence,
So that similitudes of HIM should be conceivable?

To a World Reformer – Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)

‘I Have sacrificed all,’ thou sayest, ‘that man I might succor;
Vain the attempt; my reward was persecution and hate.’
Shall I tell thee, my friend, how I to humor him manage?
Trust the proverb! I ne’er have been deceived by it yet.
Thou canst not sufficiently prize humanity’s value;
Let it be coined in deed as it exists in thy breast.
E’en to the man whom thou chancest to meet in life’s narrow pathway,
If he should ask it of thee, hold forth a succoring hand.
But for rain and for dew, for the general welfare of mortals,
Leave thou Heaven to care, friend, as before, so e’en now.

Friedrich von Schiller, litograph