My thought for today is in German. The “unbearably light” never grow up but repeat their childhood ad infinitum. It’s a playful irony indeed \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
“Als das Kind Kind war,
\nging es mit h\u00e4ngenden Armen,
\nwollte der Bach sei ein Flu\u00df,
\nder Flu\u00df sei ein Strom,
\nund diese Pf\u00fctze das Meer.
\nAls das Kind Kind war,
\nwu\u00dfte es nicht, da\u00df es Kind war,
\nalles war ihm beseelt,
\nund alle Seelen waren eins.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n– Peter Handke from the screenplay for Wings of Desire<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When the child was a child
\nIt walked with its arms swinging,
\nwanted the brook to be a river,
\nthe river to be a torrent,
\nand this puddle to be the sea.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nit didn\u2019t know that it was a child,
\neverything was soulful,
\nand all souls were one.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nit had no opinion about anything,
\nhad no habits,
\nit often sat cross-legged,
\ntook off running,
\nhad a cowlick in its hair,
\nand made no faces when photographed.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nIt was the time for these questions:
\nWhy am I me, and why not you?
\nWhy am I here, and why not there?
\nWhen did time begin, and where does space end?
\nIs life under the sun not just a dream?
\nIs what I see and hear and smell
\nnot just an illusion of a world before the world?
\nGiven the facts of evil and people.
\ndoes evil really exist?
\nHow can it be that I, who I am,
\ndidn\u2019t exist before I came to be,
\nand that, someday, I, who I am,
\nwill no longer be who I am?
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nIt choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
\nand on steamed cauliflower,
\nand eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nit awoke once in a strange bed,
\nand now does so again and again.
\nMany people, then, seemed beautiful,
\nand now only a few do, by sheer luck.
\nIt had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
\nand now can at most guess,
\ncould not conceive of nothingness,
\nand shudders today at the thought.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nIt played with enthusiasm,
\nand, now, has just as much excitement as then,
\nbut only when it concerns its work.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nIt was enough for it to eat an apple, \u2026 bread,
\nAnd so it is even now.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nBerries filled its hand as only berries do,
\nand do even now,
\nFresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
\nand do even now,
\nit had, on every mountaintop,
\nthe longing for a higher mountain yet,
\nand in every city,
\nthe longing for an even greater city,
\nand that is still so,
\nIt reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
\nwith an elation it still has today,
\nhas a shyness in front of strangers,
\nand has that even now.
\nIt awaited the first snow,
\nAnd waits that way even now.
\nWhen the child was a child,
\nIt threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
\nAnd it quivers there still today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My thought for today is in German. The “unbearably light” never grow up but repeat their childhood ad infinitum. It’s a playful irony indeed \ud83d\ude09 “Als das Kind Kind war, ging es mit h\u00e4ngenden Armen, wollte der Bach sei ein Flu\u00df, der Flu\u00df sei ein Strom, und diese Pf\u00fctze das Meer. Als das Kind Kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1709],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaisan.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}