Night Thoughts November 26-27,2015 Poem by Daniel Brick
Night Thoughts November 26-27,2015
The world, my friend, is so clever:
it turns one of its many faces toward us,
usually the one smiling gently, or
the other familiar one, quaintly melancholic.
We greet the world with tenderness
whenever we sense its fellow-feelings
that link people and place tightly together
and create a wholeness of being we call Earth.
But in our darker thoughts, do we not
sense something alien in the air
we breathe, as if it could choke us
as readily as nourishing us? We become aware
of the relentless mismatch between human
hope and earthly life. What we desire
is never what we receive, or we receive only
a portion of our hope, and this we call despair.
Is the world smiling over us even as we
wrestle with despair, our hands outstretched
to clutch any shred of hope still lingering
nearby, even close enough to grasp?
Or is the world's visage melancholy,
as it spreads its soothing beauty around us?
Does not the air itself prove to be an ally, carrying
our prayers into an overarching sky we still call heaven?
Why not then conclude, after these night thoughts
have tumbled through our minds up to dawn,
the world is not some malformed demi-god,
but our beloved home and we its happy denizens?
[...]What we desire is never what we receive, or we receive only a portion of our hope, and this we call despair.[...] One of my favourite poets Rabindranath Tagore has a song called Pagla Haoar Badol Dine (roughly translated as A Day Cloudy day of Mad Winds) , where he says some great lines - Ja na chaibar tai aaji chai go Ja nai paibar tai kotha pai go Pabo na pabo na Mori osombhober paye matha kute [I desire things I should not desire Where can I find that which I will never have O I'll never have it, never have it I will only bow my head at the feet of the Impossible] Your poem, somehow reminded me of those lines Daniel. Maybe, I read your poem wrong, but what I felt that this is a poem about an essential, and maybe inevitable, contradition in human lives - we expect the world to perform according to us. Hope is one thing, but expectations are another (something that I have realised in the twenty-four years of my existence in earth) . We want a 'heavenly existence' on earth, but in our terms - the way we define it, not in the way it is.. Matthew Arnold was right when he said that we should see things 'as they really are', but we miss out. The title of your poem, too, is very apt. It is only during the night, away from the hurly-burly of the chaotic, claustrophobic existence of the usual life that we can ponder upon the 'other' side of the world. To see the pains in pleasure, pleasure in pain - the BEAUTY IN THE UGLY AND THE UGLY IN THE BEAUTY - THE EARTHLY AND MUNDANE IN THE HEAVENLY AND THE HEAVENLY AND ETHEREAL IN THE EARTHLY AND MUNDANE.... Thanks for sharing Daniel.. Made me contemplate a good deal...
Sure! this world may give as even more than we expect. Because it is God's world. BUT I learned it for sure - only after I've read a book about saint John of Kronstadt - and he made me believe and test it by some matters in my life. So it is only because of my faith and thanks to st. Ioann that I agree with you, dear Daniel! and thus my Thank you is sincere and I hope I understood what you mean. As for many faces of this world - last several days thanks to reading Daniil Andreev - I was shocked by how many faces of the world (his Rose) he saw! Wonders non-stop!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/8/2024 3:27:02 PM # 1.0.0.1119
What we desire is never what we receive, or we receive only a portion of our hope, and this we call despair....AN EXCELLENT THOUGHT FULL 100 MARKS