Late afternoon. I’m sitting in an armchair in the back garden, under the overhang, watching the wind whip the world to and fro.
Above the tree line, the sky veers from pale gray back to the marvelous blue that it was only an hour or so earlier.
The earth spins us away – clouds thick and thin, swaying trees, burnt grass, stars not yet visible, tan cat coming across the lawn meowing, me, you – and back again.
Yes, and no, too.
I am not thinking what I see. I am what I see, white blossoms on a vine I have never seen before.
As wrote Fernando Pessoa/Alberto Caeiro:
Loving is eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not to think…
(Amar é a eterna inocência,
E a única inocência é não pensar…)
Not thinking what I see
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
Thanks for the beautiful verses from Caeiro! Always straight to the core, such as these verses below, from the very same poem:
O Mundo não se fez para pensarmos nele
[The world was not made for us to think about it]
(Pensar é estar doente dos olhos)
[(To think is to be eyesick / to have eye sickness)]
Mas para olharmos para ele e estarmos de acordo…
[But for us to look at it and be in agreement…]
In agreement means Yes! And No too! Beautiful!
alas, not yet. one of my hopeful portuguese students gave me a bi-lingual pessoa, which is helping the cause.
Nice.. Abla Portuegues..?