There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.
If anyone asks you how the perfect satisfaction of all our sexual wanting will look, lift your face and say, Like this.
When someone mentions the gracefulness of the nightsky, climb up on the roof and dance and say, Like this.
If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is, or what “God’s fragrance” means, lean your head toward him or her. Keep your face there close. Like this.
When someone quotes the old poetic image about clouds gradually uncovering the moon, slowly loosen knot by knot the strings of your robe. Like this.
If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead, don’t try to explain the miracle. Kiss me on the lips. Like this. Like this.
When someone asks what it means to “die for love,” point here.
If someone asks how tall I am, frown and measure with your fingers the space between the creases on your forehead.
This tall.
The soul sometimes leaves the body, the returns. When someone doesn’t believe that, walk back into my house. Like this.
When lovers moan, they’re telling our story. Like this. I am a sky where spirits live. Stare into this deepening blue, while the breeze says a secret. Like this.
When someone asks what there is to do, light the candle in his hand. Like this.
How did Joseph’s scent come to Jacob? Huuuuu. How did Jacob’s sight return? Huuuu. A little wind cleans the eyes. Like this.
When Shams comes back from Tabriz, he’ll put just his head around the edge of the door to surprise us Like this.
From ‘The Essential Rumi’, Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
by William Ernest Henley Ce poème a accompagné Nelson Mandela, durant ses longues années de prison. Il l'a récité presque tous les jours sinon tous les jours pendant vingt sept ans. Clint Eastwood en a fait un film. J'en suis sortie plus que jamais fascinée par cet homme d'une envergure exceptionnelle qui est Nelson Mandela