Truth Like Poetry

Truth Like Poetry: 12

211. The girl who understands nothing
beyond mother and father,
she too must one day leave them behind.
This is what we call marriage.

212. You love, I know.
You don't know how to give peace.
I want peace, I know.
I don't know how to give love.

Only when I find peace
can I love.
Only through unrest
can you love.

This is what we call distance.

213. I love you,
but I cannot say it!

I have your number,
but I cannot call.

You don't love me,
but I cannot accept it.

214. Everyone thinks
how happy I must be!

Oh, if only they knew
I've fallen for someone
exactly like you!

215. A true dream is one
that remains far
from reality!

True reality is one
that pulls dreams
much closer!

216. If my kiss feels
like punishment to you,
then punish me too—
I'll gladly receive it
with lips parted!

217. Each time
you
look this way,
each time
in your eyes
I am
born
once more!

218. : Your truth?
: No, no, everyone's! Come then, let me show you truth today!
: I understand now! This truth is yours alone—keep it to yourself!

219. Your hand's
twenty-seven bones,
at least thirty muscles,
nearly two thousand nerve cells,
five fingertips
...together
cannot send me
a single message!

What use are they then?
What do you do with them all?

220. Some are silent
because they have nothing to say.
Some are silent
because they have no one to listen.

And those who have
both words to speak
and people to hear them—
most of them
fell silent
long ago!

221. For the sin
of turning you away
that day,
I live on today
to be punished
every day!

How I am now—
not being alive
would be so much easier.

In your tears
that day
the account of my life
was written.

I didn't understand
the Creator's heart then.

Now even if I wanted
I cannot die.
In life today
there are new accounts to settle,
and my due
is bound to those accounts!

Some live
believing they'll receive
the reward they're meant to get.
Others like me
live believing
the punishment they're getting now
will one day end.

222. You planted a knife
in this chest
and walked away.

I still keep that knife
inside my chest!
If I remove it,
where else will I find
the scent of your hands!

I heard
you can't even find
your own chest anymore
to plant another knife?

223. When you're near
somehow you slip away!

Only when you're far
do you somehow arrive!

224. Here the sea is blue.
Here the sea is calm.

Here the sky is darkish.
Here the water is turbulent.

Come, visit and leave.
It's for you that I've
arranged the blue color,
composed this peaceful face!

225. In the garden some roses
bow down under the weight
of their own fragrance!

No one comes to touch them.
No one comes to smell them.

Their very fragrance
seems to keep them alone!

226. When you came,
breathing became
easier
than before.

You stayed.
You stayed.

Now even being able
to breathe at all
makes me feel blessed!

227. If you can save
even one
heart
from breaking,
then your birth
is not in vain.

If you can truly ease
even one person's
sorrow,
then your being alive
is not in vain.

If you can return
even one
baby bird
to its mother,
then your love
is not in vain.

Why cry over their words—
those who never
saw you,
who only ever
saw your failures?

228. Today I am
simply
a bloodstain that speaks;
I am nothing more.

229. Before seeing you
I knew
I had so much patience!

Yet now,
waiting for you
how restless I am all the time!

I tell the moon,
Why aren't you rising yet?
I tell the sun,
Why aren't you setting yet?

They laugh.
Then I say,
My beloved has tied me
to the date
we're meant to meet!

Since seeing you
each of my nights
has grown longer,
and my wristwatch
has grown longer still.

230. When you stitch
the wounded heart
it becomes love,
when you bandage it
it becomes romance.

231. After seeing you
I thought you were a painting.
After hearing you
I thought you were music.

After knowing you
now I think,
if you want to live
you mustn't see everything,
you mustn't hear everything,
you mustn't know everything.

232. Not always,
sometimes,
with the heart,
less than that—
with the soul,
even less than that—
with the mind's strength,
a very few people
know how to love.

233. Life is
such a wound
that I did not earn;
yet
except for that one wound
I have not been able
to earn
anything else!

234. If you love,
let me write.

If you love,
give me peace.

If you love,
give love
or do not give,
let me live.

In this life
whether I find immortality in love
or do not find it,
I want to live.

235. Let them say what pleases them!
At day's end—
you will remain just as you are!
They will remain just as they are!

236. I write,
because
to remain
I need such a
place,
even desperately yearning,
where I
could never stay.

237. What you're saying,
none of it
do I believe.

I can see for myself
what you're doing,
and what you're not!

238. If I never
return again,
know this even so,
I never
left at all!

I who have always
wanted to stay right here,
where I
have never been!

239. Love
gives nothing at all
except itself!

What love
takes,
it takes
from itself alone!

Love
never keeps
by clinging tight!

Try to keep
by clinging tight
and love itself
flees at last!

Love
stays well
in love alone!

240. One day you'll understand,
the lightest thing of all
was that,
which even the wind
could not carry away!

That day
in some teardrop,
or in a beloved fragrance,
restless
you'll search for that very happiness,
which today
you lost even in finding!

Without looking toward
what I've lost,
grasp this light thread,
before it's too late!

241. I will become flower,
finding you I'll become a lifetime's
secret hidden mistake.

I will touch sin,
for you I'll touch
labyrinthine joy forever.

You become storm,
become some hidden
magical reverie of late evening.

You are my deep night,
in sound-piercing upstream currents
an impenetrable crowd of stories.

242. The way you speak to me,
if I also spoke to you that way,
you would despise yourself.

243. The promise was,
we would draw people close,
and use things.

Yet
we use people,
and draw things close.

That's why we have such sorrow!

244. In some novel,
or in some story,
or in some poem,
or in some line,
or in some word,
...you will find medicine for your illness.

245. Hey listen,
reach out your hand!

See there,
the weight of everything
suddenly became
half of what it was!
Share this article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *