The Meditation on Incompleteness

1. In a place where no flower has bloomed,
where not even a single handful of rice has fallen,
where not a shard of glass lies scattered,
where even a drunkard will not sit down to rest—
standing in that very place, I have thought of you.
I have understood: you are my existence; without you I am no one, no one at all, no one.

2. The fault belongs to that color, which mistook itself for a flower.

3. How can I hold fast what I could never grasp?

4. The inability to sulk is no power, no strength. It is a kind of impotence.

5. My name runs through the very veins of this suffering; whom are you blaming?

6. I wrapped the darkness itself in a blanket for you, and you came running to light a lamp!

7. I love you only as long as you lag behind me.

8. When I look into your eyes, it seems a whole lifetime of my striving has gone to waste.

9. Strike me again before my wound has closed. Once it heals, you'll have to work that much harder.

10. I will gather my tears and build a well from them. Come at least on the day when we paint designs on the well's rim.