A Voice from I Don’t Know Where - Mary Oliver

FIRST YOGA LESSON “Be a lotus in the pond,” she said, “opening slowly, no single energy tugging against another but peacefully, all together.” I couldn’t even touch my toes. “Feel your quadriceps stretching?” she asked. Well, something was certainly stretching. Standing impressively upright, she raised one leg and placed it against the other, then lifted her arms and shook her hands like leaves. “Be a tree,” she said. I lay on the floor, exhausted. But to be a lotus in the pond opening slowly, and very slowly rising — that I could do.

لا أريد أن أتساءل في حيرة
هل صنعت شيئا من حياتي،
لا..
لا أريد..
أن أتحسر أو أخاف،
أو أن أغوص في جدال.
أنا فقط أريد..
ألا ينتهي بي المطاف..
كعابرة سبيل... في هذه الحياة.

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.

In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.