♠
"Father, do you recall how you returned at night
with empty hooks and empty fishnets, and damned life:
'May life be cursed that smashes in our hungry mouths!'"
As from another, misty shore, his voice replied:
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!"
"Father, do you recall your sighs when the hearth died
and your intestines drooped and you cried out to Death:
'O Death, O tasty reindeer full of fat and meat,
come, I can't bear my hunger! Feed me, or I'll starve!'"
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!"
"Father, do you recall when you clasped your dead child
and shouted to the sun that set and stars that rose:
'What in this world are children but morsels for grim Death?
Cursed be that couple that gives birth and feeds the Slayer!'"
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!'"
-- The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
Isn't it funny how one can better appreciate the essential sweetness of this animal life when Fortune has sweetened it but little? That existential pain is transmuted into spiritual wonder. One must make sense of life. It has to be worth something. Indeed, it has to be everything.
xXx
"Father, do you recall how you returned at night
with empty hooks and empty fishnets, and damned life:
'May life be cursed that smashes in our hungry mouths!'"
As from another, misty shore, his voice replied:
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!"
"Father, do you recall your sighs when the hearth died
and your intestines drooped and you cried out to Death:
'O Death, O tasty reindeer full of fat and meat,
come, I can't bear my hunger! Feed me, or I'll starve!'"
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!"
"Father, do you recall when you clasped your dead child
and shouted to the sun that set and stars that rose:
'What in this world are children but morsels for grim Death?
Cursed be that couple that gives birth and feeds the Slayer!'"
"Yes, daughter, I recall, but life, alas, is sweet!'"
-- The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
Isn't it funny how one can better appreciate the essential sweetness of this animal life when Fortune has sweetened it but little? That existential pain is transmuted into spiritual wonder. One must make sense of life. It has to be worth something. Indeed, it has to be everything.