Friday, April 8, 2011

The Fatal, thoughts from Rubén Darío

The Fatal

Blessed is the tree that is hardly sensitive,
and even more the rock because it doesn't feel anything,
because, well, there's no bigger pain than the pain of being alive,
or greater sorrow than life's knowing things.

To be, and not know anything, and be without a sure path,
and the fear of having been and a future terror...
And the sure and awful fright of being dead tomorrow,
and suffering because of life and because of the shadow and because

what we don't know and hardly suspect,
and the flesh that tempts with its fresh fruits,
and the grave that waits with its funeral branches,
and not knowing where we're going,
or from where we came!...


That's death, really. Not knowing who we are, filled with so many fears and the not-knowing, and losing even the story of where we came from, let alone knowing where we are going. The Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío wrote these words during the Modernist movement in the late 1800s, but his words (loosely translated by me. Look up the original at http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/fatal/fatal.html) express what many people today feel. Our world is searching for answers, for purpose, for direction. We are so afraid...

There is no greater pain than the pain of being alive. Life is so messy, so complicated, so hard. And we are left scared, questioning, lost...


To be continued


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