 |
All goes, and all remains,
but our task is to go,
to go creating roads
roads through the sea.
My songs never chased
after glory to remain
in human memory.
I love the subtle worlds
weightless and charming,
worlds like soap-bubbles.
I like to see them, daubed
with sunlight and scarlet,
quiver, under a blue sky,
suddenly and burst…
I never chased glory.
Traveller, the road is only
your footprint, and no more;
traveller, there’s no road,
the road is your travelling.
Going becomes the road
and if you look back
you will see a path
none can tread again.
Traveller, every track
leaves its wake on the sea…
Once in this place
where bushes now have thorns
the sound of a poet’s cry was heard
‘Traveller there’s no road
the road is your travelling…’
Step by step, line by line…
The poet died far from home.
Shrouded by dust of a neighbouring land.
At his parting they heard him cry:
‘Traveller there’s no road
the road is your travelling…’
Step by step, line by line…
When the goldfinch can’t sing,
when the poet’s a wanderer,
when nothing aids our prayer.
‘Traveller there’s no road
the road is your travelling…’
Step by step, line by line.
 |
| "Where all roads end, the other journey begins" Christine Singer |
Antonio Machado
traduction maison. cc @matthiou @marcmeurrens
FINISTERRE
The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken,
into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you
as you stood where ground turned to ocean: no way
to your future now but the way your shadow could take,
walking before you across water, going where shadows go,
no way to make sense of a world that wouldn't let you pass
except to call an end to the way you had come,
to take out each frayed letter you brought
and light their illumined corners, and to read
them as they drifted through the western light;
to empty your bags; to sort this and to leave that;
to promise what you needed to promise all along,
and to abandon the shoes that had brought you here
right at the water's edge, not because you had given up
but because now, you would find a different way to tread,
and because, through it all, part of you could still walk on,
no matter how, over the waves.
David Whyte
From http://www.davidwhyte.com/pilgrim.html
 |
| Trees Meeting point between earth and sky,... Gilles Servat |
The beauty of the trees
The softness of the air
the flagrance of the grass,
speaks to me
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me
The faintness of the stars,
the freshness of the morning,
the dewdrop of the flower,
speaks to me
The strength of the fire,
the taste of the salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.
CHIEF DAN GEORGE from Earth Prayers (1991, Harpers Collins)