World Wheel
Seventh Collection

I

Nothing on earth can be better
Than a heartfelt, inward prayer —
Be it only a single word
That never passes away.

Were there but one person in the world
To think of the Most High —
It would be more than if one gave
Thee the whole of the Alhambra.

II

If one had made it difficult for someone
To find repose in the grace of prayer —
It is as if, in the night, one had stolen
The best from him — yea, his very soul.

An angel comes down to earth and looks to see
If somewhere there is a call to Heaven —
If someone here below forgets not the Lord;

For the All-Merciful is waiting, so that with the treasure
Of His Graces, He may bend down towards earth.

III

What is the meaning of the Name of God?
Firstly, Reality; then the Presence of the Real;
And finally, the word of the soul
That hopes for liberation.
The Name of God is the best place.

IV

A beautiful maiden came and asked me:
What is the miracle of liberation?
I told her: it is the substance of Beauty
In thy heart. Be faithful to thyself.

This is a symbol — for I did not say it;
Yet it is true — I say it in the poem.

V

Wert thou not a poet, thou wouldst be a philosopher;
Wert thou not a philosopher, thou wouldst be a poet;
The Creator gave thee a nature
Which of itself follows both paths.

Both paths: thou canst find them
Wherever the true and the beautiful combine to become one —
Where the spirit of the great Plato blows.
The priestess Diotima taught Plato love,
And Plato taught wisdom to the whole world —
See how the wisdom of Eros miraculously
Joins with the highest spiritual knowledge.

VI

Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Sleeping Beauty —
Ye think they are idle fairy tales;
But the treasury of fairy tales stems from olden times —
And has a deep wisdom to teach you.

Symbols — ye carry them within you;
He who is wise will willingly listen to them.

VII

In the past I believed eating to be almost a sin,
And I fasted, and became ill.
However: what is necessary for life, is pleasing to God;
Whoever acts with proportion is free from all sin.

VIII

Snowflakes whirl down to earth —
In warm homes, people sing summer songs.
In summer, when the sun burns fiercely,
They anxiously cherish everything that is cool.
Yin-yang — what does the symbol mean?
A to-and-fro — so it is with people
And with the soul. From each pole,
You should always take something of the other.

IX

One should perceive the logical and the beautiful,
Not only in great, but also in little things;
Even in the to-and-fro of daily life, we should
Prepare the way for God’s blessing.
One often thinks that little is nothing —
But everything has meaning before the Face of God.

X

Objectivity — holding fast to the thing
That has its own existence apart from ourselves.
And with it comes the holy radiation of the heart —
Something of ourselves; the Lord, in His Compassion,
Watches faithfully over our selfhood.

Hold strictly to that which is as such;
Pay thy debt to realities;
Forget not that thou too art real —
God knows thee. With the world, be patient.

XI

Wisdom, poetry, music and beautiful women —
With them, I can build a bridge
To the kingdom of Heaven, and not feel forsaken;
Who can grasp the wonders of the All-Merciful?

XII

Metaphysics has two derivatives:
Firstly, knowledge of the world — cosmology —
Which has its source in the universe;
Then knowledge of the soul — psychology.
Cosmology concerns the world as “thou”;
Psychology, as “I”; and metaphysics
Looks towards the Uncreated and Eternal.

XIII

I know not who invented the dance of the veils;
The veil is the Word, the body is Being.
Unveiling means: the path from illusion to Reality —
Brahma satyam; jagan — the world is appearance.

XIV

Reality — you must see two meanings here;
Firstly: the Absolute alone is real;
Secondly: what certainly has existence,
Is not pure nothingness — this is evident.

XV

Relativity — a rigorous word;
That which can be either more or less,
Either bigger or smaller, and so on —
What is it? Beyond compare is the Lord alone.

XVI

Dream-veil life — who has woven thee
And brought thee into the day of existence?
Who has conceived thy dance, thy being —
Who has kindled the soul’s temporality;
Who has spun the threads of thine illusion?

Dream-veil ego — who has made thee thus,
As the Self wills? I know not;
Yet I know well that dreams must be —
Life is cosmic poetry.

XVII

O Gypsy, who standest dreaming at the door:
Let me hear a song from thy violin —
Let it talk of dance and love and suffering,
And evoke for us the vast land of the Puszta;

Let us understand why thou art restless,
And wanderest to the rim of the unknown.
May Wisdom touch thy soul —
Mayst thou find repose in the depths of thy heart.

XVIII

Dream-castle world — who built thee?
They complain that thou art full of rifts,
Forgetting thy deep meaning. Happy the man who
Trusts in the Lord despite the flaws.

Architect God — Thou knewest Thy plan;
To criticize it is the madness of fools.
All the more so in that he who complains
Does not always look to his own virtue.

XIX

There is a first pair: man and woman;
And then a second: face and body.

On the other hand, there is a ternary:
Face, breast, and sexual parts;
Which mean wisdom, beauty, and love,
Given by God; powers and beatitudes.

One could also say that wisdom is one thing,
And beauty, along with love, is the other;
God grant that we walk on our way with each of these graces.

XX

Jesus, Mary, Joseph — between the two,
The God-man and the carpenter,
Is Mary, of dual nature;
The most marvelous woman ever seen by human eye —
Always walking in the wake of the Most High.

XXI

Jakob Böhme thought that evil
Is already contained in God. Certainly not as evil,
But because All-Possibility wills it;
In God Himself, all is pure and silent.

XXII

Erwin von Steinbach, who built the Strassburg Cathedral,
Dreamt that he floated through the space
Of the cathedral, with an angel
Holding gently his hand; and he felt as though
He were not dreaming. — A bygone age, seven hundred years ago,
An age of the miraculous and the nearness of Heaven,
When no wall separated stone from Spirit —
When the angels were still our helpers.

XXIII

Play for me thy violin, sing a song
Of olden times, and I will write it down;
The gentle sound of strings can be enough
To make spring bloom in my soul.

XXIV

I often think of the past —
I drink wine from an ancient tankard.
I could break it, for I know
That in the present, I have enough.

For, when the “now” is in God’s Hands,
Yesterday and tomorrow are both good.
Be happy if ye know not too much —
And if ye drink new courage from the Eternal Now.

XXV

It was in the Wild West. An Indian
Said to me: “See that white man —
I heard he is an Italian;
So go and speak to him!”
I went to him and gave him my hand:
“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita…”
He thought I was a friend from his country.
“Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,”
Was his reply. — I would never have thought
That the Wild West would bring forth the spirit of Dante!

XXVI

I wonder where my true homeland is;
Is it on the Rhine, where I was born —
Is it Mother India, which renewed my heart?
So many things led me back to the Center —
And to the beatific vastness of the Absolute.

XXVII

Freemasonry — if only it had remained
What it was at the beginning,
Much less superfluous matter would have been written;
Nevertheless: the mason builds as he can.

Stonemasons were formerly initiates,
The builders’ lodges were their sanctuaries;
There they worked to build the cathedral;
There they stood before the door of Mystery.

XXVIII

The palingenesia of the soul is
Performed by the hand of the Master of Mysteries —
Either by initiation, or from within,
By the Grace of God which destroys all illusion.
Being reborn in the Spirit — a teaching from primordial times.
The Lord grant that the heart be converted.
Some come into the world with this grace —
God places Prophets along the way.

XXIX

“The next world is better for thee than this one,”
Says the Koran. One knows it, yet one knows it not;
What is on the other side, one cannot clearly see —
But one knows that the here-below will soon be broken;

Those who stand piously before the Most High
Know that the Lord has promised salvation;
One day the earthly world will no longer exist —
“But My words will not pass away.”

XXX

Serenity: the soul abstains
From all dreaming about things.
Complementary to this is act: only one thing resounds
In the heart, the Presence of the Most High.
Then there is peace that calms all agitation:
Resignation to what is written.
Then certitude, that fills the spirit:
Love of the deep, inward life of Truth.

And finally there is the mystery of Oneness:
Absolutely real is the Lord alone.
The complementary pole is Selfhood:
Beyond all concepts is the silence of my real Being.

XXXI

Dream-veil soul — who has willed thee,
That thou shouldst float through earthly existence,
Renewed by image after image, by sound after sound —
That thou shouldst weave thine own existence for thyself?

Dream-veil soul — who has made thy journey,
Such that, with joy and sorrow, thou shouldst wander through life,
And — may God help thee! — strive toward the Sovereign Good.

Happy the man, in whose soul an angel sings.

XXXII

Ye think I was born on the green Rhine —
Ye know not the place of my birth.
I myself knew it not — till one day
The Most High spoke: be what thou truly art!

XXXIII

What art thou? German — also somewhat French,
Then also Arab — and finally Indian,
By adoption into the circle of the tribe.
Thus did the goddess of destiny cast her lots —
Thou knowest not how, for the Lord alone knows.

Also Mother India didst thou early encounter —
She blessed thee with the light of Wisdom.

XXXIV

Treasure-house heart, who opened thee for me —
Who bestowed new light to the darkness?
Blessèd art thou if God has revealed to thee what thou art —
And if thy heart’s beat finds its end in Him.

XXXV

One of the modes of wisdom is Mastership:
The teaching function comes from God’s power.
The Master’s mission is difficult: he must
Give the disciple what is beneficial for his spirit;
Yet his function is also easy, thanks to God —
The duty of giving constitutes the Master’s life.

God’s Will is the star of his existence.

XXXVI

It is still winter, the woods are bare;
The air is cold, the sun’s ray wan;
But the blackbird’s song makes us think of spring —
O coming of spring, be not too long!
Yet one thing keeps me from being discouraged:
I carry in my heart eternal spring.

XXXVII

Isis — a name for All-Possibility;
For she is “all that ever was, that is,
And that will be” — but beyond all time.

“And no one can lift my veil” —
Her naked body is eternity.

XXXVIII

Immortality — whoever has grasped it
Is delivered from all burdens of the soul.
If thou knowest what becoming and passing away are,
Thou art in the pure, uncreated Spirit —
For thou hast found in God thy very being.

Beyond the idle to-and-fro of things
There is a God-willed return
To what in God thou wast before —
And mayest thou read it in thy heart.

XXXIX

O earthly wanderer, thou wouldst like to be happy —
Thou canst be, only if thou submit to God
And trust in Him; so prove that thou
Lovest Him in all thy poor ways.

XL

Resignation to God’s holy Will,
Then trust in His great Goodness —
So that the weak man, on his path,
Guard himself faithfully against all that is alien to God.

XLI

The law of thinking: on the basis of truth
Proclaim the nature of things to thyself and to the world.

Happy the man who walks in the paths of the Most High —
A pure heart is eternal prayer.

XLII

“Culture” is unnecessary knowledge of too many things —
The one who writes can scarcely avoid this luxury.
Who would wish to be the servant of vain things?
One is resigned to it — one must endure it.

But who can measure where the limits are?
Wisdom has many forms; thus it is also
What the working of our mind sometimes needs —
An alternating play: remembering and forgetting.

XLIII

One often needs more courage in earthly life;
If thou knowest not what to do, be ready
To give new strength to other human beings —
The example of thy resignation to God.

XLIV

In life there is a law: whatever gives pleasure
Must, on the one hand, be natural in itself,
And, on the other, be interiorizing, and linked with the Spirit;
For the Spirit makes pure.
Human nature is multifarious —
A noble person is he who transcends it.

XLV

Remembering and forgetting — knowest thou well
What these words mean for thee?
Thou must not cling to past pleasures —
Thou must grant the world thy God-remembrance.

XLVI

Pleasure is harmless for us human beings
When it is linked with a sense of God;
When we find in that which could seduce us,
A little path towards the Truth of the Most High.

XLVII

Metaphysics, and with it the method —
Doctrine, and prayer of the heart: the two poles
Of the way to the goal. I have often said this —
God forgive me for saying it again.

XLVIII

He who has absorbed the Word of God in his heart
Is like a river — before him lies the vast sea.
And if piously thou hast reached the final shore,
Thank God — and ask no more.

XLIX

Say not that Truth is only there for thinking —
It is for living, beyond all time;
It gives thee all that thy heart can desire —
In each word of God there is beatitude.

L

The Veda: Brahma satyam, jagan —
In Islam:
is all that thou see’st around thee —
Only was there before Creation.

LI

The One is Creator; the multiple is world —
A teaching come from Heaven since the earliest of times.
And even had it remained hidden within the Most High —
It is written in the hearts of men.

As God proclaimed from the mountain-top:
Adonaí Elohenu, Adonaí Ehat.

LII

When truths are presented in a mathematical way,
Not they, but their tone, may weary us.
One might prefer — and they merit it —
To clothe them in the garment of celestial songs.

Wisdom’s gaze sees the nature of things;
Thou askest: of what substance is the sage?
God made him of Intellect and music.

LIII

To be “intellectual” is not sufficient,
For noble disposition pertains to the human state;
Understanding sublime doctrine is not everything —
Only nobility constitutes the soul’s total worth.

What I am saying is self-evident —
However: prejudices should be condemned.
And the scale of all values is with God alone.

LIV

There is a painting by the artist Feuerbach
Which portrays Dante with the noble women of Ravenna,
Who followed him lovingly,
To gaze upon the light of his wise spirit.

The nobility of the painting deserves praise,
Because it moves the pious man who thinks of Dante
Sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa —
From the outward to the depths of the heart.

LV

If only the wayfarer could understand
That the hereafter is better than the here-below,
As all holy scriptures emphasize —
God grant that we measure with their measures!
For faith is not only a rigorous duty —
It is above all the desire of our heart.

LVI

There are sayings that compel us to reflect:
“God has cursed everything on earth,
Except God-remembrance and the things that
Favor it” — Mohammed’s words
Are like a sword, but they are also meant to be consoling,

For everything in this world will pass away,
Except the values which reside in God,
And which already here on earth convey His blessing.

LVII

The a priori of all activity
Is vacare Deo. Without God,
One is never prepared for death.

Vacare Deo: to be empty for the Most High —
To be before God what the Lord requires of us;
Nothing better canst thou be for thy neighbor.

LVIII

The first time I saw gypsies
Was in a cellar at night.
They had come out of their wagon,
And had brought their violins.

They played csárdás after csárdás,¹
And I thought to myself, a new life is beginning for thee,
So deeply did the violins’ drunkenness affect me —
All that had happened before seemed to melt away.

LIX

Cossacks came one day, long ago,
From their distant land.
One would have loved to hear their horses’ galloping —
They sang as if they were on horseback

With lance, saber, and swinging whips;
With manly singing, in deep bass voices —
Had one encountered them on the steppes,
One might not have felt much at ease.

LX

The mentality of most people is horizontal —
It should be vertical, from world to God;
It was for this that the human soul was created:
To stand before God in an eternal “today.”

For we are here in order to look Upwards —
And to build a way for ourselves and others.

LXI

Think not that God owes thee special help,
Simply because thou art what thou art — whether great or small,
God helps thee how and when He will;
The infant Moses lay care-free in the bulrushes —
Thou too couldst be a little Moses.

LXII

One would like to be always agreeable and peaceful —
But one cannot, because people are too bad.
One must not spoil the average man —
Only he who keeps this in mind is just.

LXIII

Life is earnest — have no doubt;
But this is not the sole lesson of existence.
For after rigor, the heart needs music —

What would the world be, if there were no love.

LXIV

What would the harp of life be, if its sound
Were not attuned to God’s goodness?
God grant that our soul’s song
Be not deprived of Heaven’s violins;
Happy are those whose deepest song of longing
Emerged from God’s grace before their very existence —
Just as the body of the goddess emerged from the sea.

LXV

Understand: with faith comes peace,
And with trust comes resignation;
With certitude comes serenity —
The most beautiful strains from the same song.

Let thy heart be conscious of this at all times.

LXVI

The greatest spirits never regretted
To have sung of wisdom and love;
Wisdom was for the monasteries,
And love, for the noble troubadours.
Thus, in ancient times, every song, every melody,
Found its place to gladden the earth —
Let us say that love, as lived by the sage,
Teaches you how to feel and what to do.

LXVII

Expansion is continuous
When a spiral flows outwards —
And it is discontinuous
In the case of concentric circles:
The first is movement, the second is rest;
Behold how complex is the structure of space.
Such is our ego with its rhythms —
Eternally immutable is alone.

LXVIII

If thy soul feels unwell, say “yes” to God —
In the “yes” to God is the best remedy.
In the Name of God, thou feelest secure,
Whatever thy tired soul’s pain may be.

In the Name — think not that the Path is far.

LXIX

What will the world be like thousands of years from now?
Who knows what the earth’s forms were in the past?
There one should ask the scientists.

We are apprehensive, not only of transience,
But also of change — no one knows
Where the mountains or the seas once lay.

LXX

Thousands of years ago — who can know
Whether our region was hot or cold?
No one is in a position to find out —
And if one could, one would be sore afraid.
Wanderer, go thy way intent on thy duty —
Wonder little about the unthinkable,
And leave to God what we cannot know.

LXXI

A sage is one who combines Truth and Beauty,
And bases both on the Being of the Divinity.
He is not wise who only sees the half,
And flees from ultimate conclusions.

He is wise who measures with God’s measures,
And knows that in his heart dwells That which is —
That which the spirit powerfully draws inwards.

LXXII

A dull day: joy had ebbed away;
And yet a bright day: it was found in God.
For it often happens that when good comes to thee,
Evil threatens with its seed of poison.
Thus a bad beginning is often a sign
That angels will soon reach out their hands to thee.

LXXIII

Thou mayest wonder, when vexation overtook thee,
Why destiny has taken away thy happiness;
It is often — and thou must ponder this —
Because the Most High wished to give thee an experience;
Know that experience is a precious good —
So accept it, in God, with a joyful mind,
And let thyself be led on the path to the Best.

LXXIV

The Shaikh Al- was first an —
He played his flute and charmed snakes.
Shaikh Bu Zidi came to him and said:
Enough! This is a vain activity;
Choose between the false and the true —
Put away thy flute and tame thy soul.

LXXV

Why is the soul full of vain images,
When its happiness lies in the Great One.
Happy is he to whose soul, in the night,
The blessing of the Supreme Name has come;
Whom God’s Grace cradles into deep contemplation —
Who thought of God — and of whom God has thought.

LXXVI

Sadness comes to us from nature,
But bitterness comes from the evil one.
Man may often be deeply grieved —
Whoever becomes bitter, should be ashamed before God.

LXXVII

I would like to define six summits among man:
First, I mention the prophet,
Who has received a message from God,
In the wake of which a sector of humanity lives.
Then I mention the saint — his example
Is our shield against evil powers.
Then I praise also the sage,
Without whose spirit the world cannot live.

And then the hero, powerful in the warrior’s state —
His sword guarantees security in the land.
Then too the genius, creator of noble art —
He rightly receives the admiration of many ages.
And finally, there is the good man, of simple type,
His presence is of great worth.

LXXVIII

So many things that we call earthly
Have brought to earth something of Heaven;
People think that man invented the beautiful —
But it came of itself, to manifest the Divine;
It is not wholly made for our world.

Behold the headdress made of eagle feathers —
A god has bowed down towards the earth.
Forms that link us to the eternal —
No man on earth could have devised them by himself.
The eagle headdress, image of majesty —
In the beginning, it was an angel’s raiment.

LXXIX

It can happen that in a poem
One chooses a wrong expression — something exaggerated,
Or unclear; the thoughts may skip
From one meaning to another —
But the essential has remained intact.

LXXX

Certainly, life is not an easy path —
Destiny has sown it with thorns;
But I have no choice, I must go on —
If I do not continue, it is time that will continue.

And yet there is something stronger than the dream:
The Absolute, which dwells within the heart,
And which, God willing, vanquishes time —
If It radiates for thee, life scarcely counts.

Think of the Day of Divine Judgement —
Say “yes” to God, and be not troubled.

LXXXI

Be thou aware that only the One is —
Earthly is the great void.
In essence, thou art not other than the One —
This is the doctrine, ever since God created the world.

LXXXII

Thou shouldst not despise small joys;
God gives them to accompany the great ones.
Joy is a ray from the kingdom of Heaven —
God wished to prepare a feast for thee.

LXXXIII

The wise man’s heart is like the Ark of the Covenant —
A shrine for God; no man can measure this grace;
What is manifested outwardly thou canst measure,
But God’s freedom thou must never forget —
The inward Path is limitless, and straight.

— God’s presence, which dwells within thee,
Which has its throne in thy heart’s deepest chamber.

LXXXIV

Thou art in space — someone must be,
Else thou wouldst not exist. Thy spirit
Abides in the Void that is all — in God.
And thou wouldst be nothing,
If, through God, multiplicity did not exist.
So behold, He manifests Himself, for otherwise the Good
Would remain hidden in Its unknown Selfhood.

The Good wishes to communicate Itself, for one should
On earth hear something of Heaven —
And may God turn His Grace towards the earth.

LXXXV

Agnostics brazenly maintain that we must
Believe that the intellect does not have the capacity to know.
A contradiction bordering on madness —
For whoever possesses intellect can know all.
Knowledge means: consciousness of this world
And of him who is conscious — because the Lord
Placed him in this selfsame world.

LXXXVI

Between God and the “I” is the Prophet.
Man as God, and God as Man, if one may put it thus.
The “I” means: Lord, forgive me;
Be grateful when evil turns away from thee.

The one who is conscious of his fault is dear to the Most High —
For humility, the Lord makes easy what is difficult.

LXXXVII

The Supreme Name is a ray of joy
That eases for thee the caprices of life,
And brings consolation midst the pain of all care.
Say: God — while sitting, lying or walking,
So says the Koran; whatever thou doest,
Wherever thou mayest be — thy heart will be born again.

LXXXVIII

Truth is man’s great consolation;
In its wake, all beauty comes,
The noble splendor of high art —
For us, earth’s children, many paths
Can lead to deep remembrance of God.

LXXXIX

Life is a Path from God to God —
Otherwise it is nothing. What more can I say?
And if life’s burden weighs heavily on thee —
The All-Merciful will help thee to carry it.

Each day should be a Path from God to God —
Happy the man who can see himself thus.

XC

Love of the beautiful is not just blind emotion —
See to it that it be something better for thee.
What counts is not only that one should see the beautiful —
But also that one should reject the ugly,
Both outwardly and inwardly. For this must be clear:
Worthwhile is not what pleases everyone —
But only what, deeply inwardly, is good and true;
God made the good in the world from Truth.

XCI

and — the Sanskrit words
For illusion and dispassion. The first is the world,
The second is the wise man’s soul,
Which Brahma placed into illusion —
So that, in spite of , it might be real;
So that it might choose its true identity.

XCII

The Stella Matutina stands in the sky
And, with its brilliance, seeks to show us the way —
Not only to reach the desired shore,
But also to ascend to the kingdom of Heaven.

Forget not what the symbol means —
It guides the soul to the True Star.

XCIII

The traveler no longer knew where he was;
It was a joyless place —
Ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
Dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.

This means: one can find good in everything.
Certainly, life is not child’s play;
One may often think that things go too far —

May our wayfaring unite us with God.

XCIV

The eye is not made for looking at God —
Whoever looks at the sun for long becomes blind;
Thou see’st God only with the eye of the heart.
The outward eye can see only visible things.

XCV

In the sky shines the sun which God conceived
As the image of another Sun, whose light
No earthly eye can reach —
Earth cannot see Divine Mystery.

The sun’s splendor, standing proudly in the sky,
Is not eternal — see how it sets.

XCVI

Almost terrifying is the sky
That thou see’st at night in the Far North —
When, in the limitless, the spirit’s eye
Reads the myth of the whole creation.

XCVII

When one is young, it is difficult to imagine
How an old person feels. And the old person should know:
He is standing with both feet on holy ground;
And may God forgive his despondency.
He must not be saddened by the weakness of age —
His trust in God must be an example.

XCVIII

“Beauty is the splendor of the True” —
And Truth is the essence of the beautiful:
This conclusion is implicit in Plato’s thinking.
He did not wish to spoil us —
He wished to give us the doctrine in one phrase.

XCIX\

Humility is the cord that holds together
All the beads — the other virtues;
So said the Curé d’Ars. If the cord breaks —
See how the array of virtues collapses into nothing.

C

Someone said to the Maharshi:³ thou art full of illusion —
Thou art no master. The Maharshi laughed and said:
If there were no false masters in the world,
False disciples would not have their teachers.

CI

Thou must not be possessed by thine ego —
So think of the One Reality,
And remember that, in essence, thou art not
Other than this One — not other than beatitude.

CII

The wisest of men is liberated,
But he too has an ego.
Equilibrium is human nature —
Noble I-consciousness transcends itself.

CIII

Truth, and activity in accordance with it — the equilibrium
That holds together all that thou art;
If once thou hast known the True,
Thank God, and do what pleases Him.

CIV

Certitude and peace — these are the concepts
Which, on the basis of truth, contain our happiness,
And indeed everything. As for the world of doubters —
Let it be their world.

CV

Man, woman. Man is a creator —
He is the creator of the greatest human works.
Woman feels her vocation in other things:
Her happiness is to bring happiness to others.

CVI

Humility and goodness are offered by Nature —
God grant that such a man may also be strong
In what he does, for weakness leads to nothing.
Pride and wickedness are from the devil.

CVII

One of the most contemptible things
Is pettiness regarding vanquished enemies.
A noble conqueror, like Saladin,
Makes vanquished foes his friends —
For nobility brings benefits to both sides.
And if it is a devil that one has vanquished,
The punishment can yet bear noble features;
For what the revenge-thirsty man forgets is that
He who is noble, shows moderation in all.
Thou canst not be truly victorious in war,
If thou know’st not how to conquer thyself.

CVIII

I would prefer not to speak of bad things —
But they are there, and I must take account of them.
So let us talk of things that are useful —
But one cannot teach without saying “no.”

CIX

Thou art woven into a particular time,
And must experience what others dream;
Then suddenly, after all the up-and-down and to-and-fro,
The nightmare vanishes —
No golden apples hung on the trees.
What once was real — it is no more.

CX

The world is a hierarchy of spheres —
The higher penetrates the one that follows it;
Creation goes from above to below,
And not from left to right on the same plane.

Gnosis teaches the emanation of light;
The spheres of the universe are contained in us.
But modern science knows nothing
Of God’s Hands which fashion the universe —

Of all the wonders of the Divine Power.

CXI

Above all: hold fast to the Absolute;
For the contingent follows in its wake.
Were thy life but a single instant —
God would ask of thee the Absolute alone.

CXII

Discouragement is human, but one should remember,
That everything can lead the heart to the Good.
Even if thou art afraid of the world and of life —
Thou canst always find joy within the Creator.

CXIII

Do not think that the good of Knowledge
Will rob thee of everything else in life —
That God, when He has given thee the Truth,
Will not also give thee the good of Beauty.

CXIV

Human beauty is given by God;
One must live it in keeping with the Lord’s intention —
Noblesse oblige. That the outward is good
Only has meaning if the heart reposes in the Most High.

Sometimes the evil one takes on a beautiful form,
So that the soul imagines that it is normal and perfect.
But perfection is not cheap —
The path to perfection is long.

CXV

Thou would’st like the world wheel to be better,
In things both great and small;
In vain — for it turns as destiny wills;
The wheel of existence cannot do more than this.

Be that as it may — make thine own soul pure;
Then, even if thou be small, something
On this poor earth will be better.

CXVI

There are women who are afraid of men,
Not knowing that there are two kinds:
The man who wants to enjoy women —
Then the man who loves the eternal feminine,

Without merely seeking possession or pleasure,
And who, in everything, is conscious of the Divine Essence.

CXVII

Knowledge and certitude are inborn in thee,
But nearby was always a shadow that hates the True,
As is the nature of things. But be of good cheer —
God will make thy burden lighter;
For whoever loves the True, is chosen.

CXVIII

A Master, over a hundred years old —
A saint in the land of the Siamese —
Has, through friends, sent me his greeting;
He has never been in my proximity.
It makes me happy to praise this wise man,
Even though I live far from his land.
For the striving of both of us is to the Above;
Brethren in Wisdom ever clasp hands.

CXIX

Spring is approaching and the birds greet it
High in the trees;
Thou see’st and hearest: the robin’s joyous song
Would not miss it.
There is no need to ponder
The wish of thy heart;
Eternal spring, created by the Lord,
Thou carriest within.

CXX

Truth demands virtue;
Likewise, love follows from beauty.
All this is present in wisdom and nobility.
In the treasury of the heart lies Paradise.
And even if this heavenly kingdom seems too small for thee —
Then let the Lord enter in thy stead.

CXXI

If thou art happy in this life, dost thou know
How thou wilt experience its last word?
But God is always there. If thou knowest this,
Deo gratias — be happy with thy lot;
For God is That which is. Whether thou art here or not —
The Hand of the Most High will provide.

CXXII

One person loves philosophy, and at the same time
Scorns music — but something is missing here;
Another knows that music contains
What speaks to anyone who strives toward Heaven —
It is wrong to fragment the nature of things.

CXXIII

Beyond good and evil is All-Possibility —
Therefore whatever is, is in essence good,
For it cannot but be; and what must be,
Is like a play of Infinity.

CXXIV

A curious saying in the “Lord’s Song”:
“I am the guile of the deceiver”;
How can the Bhagavad- say
That God is in the act of the liar?

Even the most stubborn deceiver would be
Incapable of lying, were there not in him
A spark of Divine Power; man can do nothing of himself,
Even when he acts outside honor.

CXXV

The stupidly proud man is always ready
To consider himself the salt of the earth;
He will split hairs over his glory —
Nothing is more despicable than vanity.

CXXVI

Whatever you admire in the outward world
Is prefigured, in a perfect way,
In the Lord. And is also reflected within yourselves;
Thus hope that God will show you even greater favor —

That our soul, O Lord, be like Thy Kingdom.

CXXVII

“To give is more blessed than to receive.”
What do these words of Scripture tell us?
That in magnanimity — and man is free —
The giver surpasses himself.

CXXVIII

The greatest ones, those who are unforgettable,
Are the ones who give. But the good man,
Who faithfully accomplishes what for him is a duty and a path,
Is also a giver — he is so in the way that he can.

CXXIX

Do not think that what I say here of myself
Lacks modesty or is exaggerated:
All that one finds in good old books
Regarding Being, and the question of the universe,
God has inscribed in the substance of my heart.

CXXX

I have for long wished to end this book —
I could not do so; I had to write more poems.
But this time my pen lies down of itself,
For there are other preoccupations, other duties;
Be that as it may, whatever we may wish to do:
Let us follow the call of the Most High —

Let us repose in God’s deep Peace.