The pain and joy of experience

And thus, when with our heart's whole hope for guide
Towards our goal we have struggled on unthinking,
And find fulfilment's portals open wide—
From those unfathomed depths a sudden mass
Of fire bursts forth, we stand amazed: we tried
To set the torch of life alight—alas,
A sea of flame engulfs us, ah what flame
Of love or hate, burning, consuming us
With pain and joy, which strangely seem the same!
We look back earthwards, hiding from this blaze
Behind a youthful veil of awestruck shame.

So be it! I will turn from the sun's rays.
At that rock-riving torrent, with increasing
Ecstasy at that watefall I gaze:
From cliff to cliff it pours down never-ceasing,
It foams and streams a thousand thousandfold,
Spray upon spray high in the air releasing.
But from this tumult, marvelous to behold,
The rainbow blooms, changing yet ever still;
Now vanishing and now drawn clear and bold.
How cool the moisture of its scattering spill!
I watch a mirror here of man's whole story,
And plain it speaks, ponder it as you will:
Our life's a spectrum-sheen of borrowed glory.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust, Part II (translated by David Luke)

| Posted by Wilson at 23:59 Central | TrackBack
| Report submitted to the Humanities Desk