Friday 5 November 2010

become the lamp






Why be human if being human
is so difficult? Become the lamp
by the roadside that quietly sheds
its light on man.
Be as it is, for as it is
he will always have a human face.
Be good to him, this man,
and impartial like a lamp
that quietly illuminates the faces
of drunkards, vagabonds and students
along the solitary road.

Be a lamp
if you can't be human,
for being human is difficult.
A human has just two hands
but he should help thousands.
So be a lamp by the roadside
shining on a thousand happy faces,
shining for the lonely, the aimless.
Be a lamp with a single light,
man in a magic square
signaling with a green arm.
Be a lamp, a lamp,
a lamp.



Srecko Kosovel

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22 comments:

  1. amazing, you have a photo for everything!

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  2. One may aspire to being a lamp...
    A noble goal...
    But then...
    Why not aspire to being the sun...
    If one must become a source of light ?

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  3. PS I do absolutely love this image, the shoes walking, path of life, whoever their owner, the lamp's brilliant glare, the leaves, it is all harmonious as only you can make it so...

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  4. Une lampe dans la nuit...pour éclairer mes pensées...Bientôt le soleil apparaîtra, pour réchauffer nos matins parfois sombres...
    Amitiés,
    K'line

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  5. mayb, one shud aspire to be a lamp, cuz it gives light, wen sun is nt dere...
    nd nyc pic..

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  6. Herbstmond

    Der Mond erscheint zu jeder Jahreszeit,
    Das ist wohl wahr,
    Doch gewiss am schönsten im Herbst.
    Dann rücken die Berge näher,
    Und das Wasser fliesst klar.
    Wie eine leuchtende Scheibe
    Schwimmt er durch den unbegrenzten Himmel,
    Und da ist kein Empfinden mehr
    von Licht und Dunkel,
    Da alles von seiner Gegenwart durchdrungen ist.
    Der grenzenlose Himmel über mir,
    Die Kühle des Herbstes auf meinem Gesicht.
    Ich nehme meinen guten Stab
    und wandere auf die Hügel.
    Nirgendwo ein Hauch vom Staub der Welt,
    Nur des Mondlichts glänzende Strahlen.
    Ich hoffe, dass heute nacht
    auch andere diesen Mond betrachten
    Und dass er alle Wesen erleuchtet.
    Herbst um Herbst kommt das Mondlicht
    und geht wieder;
    Und immer werden Menschen es betrachten.
    Die Reden des Buddha, die Belehrungen von Enõ,
    Sie geschahen unter dem gleichen Mond.
    Die ganze Nacht hindurch
    betrachte ich den Mond,
    Während der Fluss ruhiger wird
    und der weisse Tau fällt.
    Welcher Wanderer wird wohl
    am längsten im Mondlicht baden?
    Wessen Heim wird wohl
    die meisten Mondstrahlen trinken?

    (Meister Ryokan)

    Für Dich, liebe Roxana, wo immer Du bist!

    Renée

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  7. Great image. I didn't see the stroller under the streetlamp straight off, but was mesmerized when he entered my consciousness. I love the pointed lone illuminated leaf protruding into the darkness on the left. Awesome poem. Yes, a lamp will do nicely!

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  8. Bonjour chère magnifique Roxana,-deux autres chef-doeuvres pour la méditation ici.

    La poste précédente -que c'est enchanté-la foret profonde de la vie et les nuances de couleurs-tu es si magnifique en travaillant avec les nuances-la souffrance des bleus noir- la nuit pleine de beauté de souffrance qui est élévée et l'arbre d'orée de la souffrance comme l'arbre de la vie,-la miséricorde la résurrection qui brille comme une étoile sur la terre. -ah c'est magnifique c'est l'arbre de la croix mais la transformation.

    Et pour ce billet quel magnifique tension de votre oeuvre.C'est parfait le texte et votre oeuvre- je vois le désespoir et la lumière masquée.

    Juste une petite idée légère qui saute un peu du texte peut etre la lumière c'est un sourire amical...


    Chère Roxana merci pour ton intéret sur mon ancestre mais franchement Roxana, je trouve que ce n'est pas Rome qui est la ville éternelle, mais la nuit d'été qui éternelle...

    Je trouve que Romania c'est un bouquet exotique pour moi.


    Merci comme toujours pour les mots extrement gentille chère Roxana.
    HUGS
    belle journée enchantée a toi aussi magnifique amie.

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  9. Et je trouve aussi un parallèle ici avec le texte précédent, c'est encore la lumière de l'arbre de la croix qui est la seule résurrection.

    The tension between the text and the image is wonderful.

    HUGS
    merci.

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  10. ET c'est le paradis d'interprétation ici.

    A quoi ca sert chère Roxana, de discuter les ancetres ici, tu nous offre le coeur d''humanité ici.

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  11. this brought tears to my eyes. being human is hard, and if only a light is all one can muster, it is better than surrender to darkness.
    you master the darkness with a very focused lamp in your images.
    keep us posted!
    Di

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  12. actually chère Roxana, I find it difficult to just leave one comment here even two is not enough ha ha, I leave and I find myself still with lingering thoughts of your posts thinking of other interpretations because they are as open ended as the cosmos themselves.

    This text fascinates me.On a more concrete interpretation I find myself thinking that ok a human has only two hands and we should help millions so we should shine the light.
    For me this echoes the light of christ or any prophet such as Mohammed who brings strength to the people especially when we are in a weakened state.Through their words they bring us light.

    I also consider any author who can help the multitudes through their words of light!!!!

    Quite a long time ago I gave up chain smoking because of a book I read written by a psychic. I am really forever grateful to this author.

    I guess any good literature can provide light.

    thanks for your beautiful visual response. I would love to hear your verbal response maybe that you will leave in the comment section!! WEll we will see. I can't be too greedy ha ha.

    merci
    HUGS

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  13. Extraordinary is the way you slide from one style to another but one can still recognize your work.

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  14. The alchemist said: "Don't tell me you've found Kosovel's very lamp!" She looked at him with a stern, uncompromising look. "Of course. I have found it. But the secret is that there are many. She was actually thinking many stars and many galaxies, and, not being in the habit of giving her inner mind the public scrutiny afforded by, let's say, a street lamp, she dissembled brilliantly.

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  15. Beautiful Roxana, your post inspires me to write not to scatter the word but to spread the light.

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  17. i love the perspective, the intimacy of this circle of light with the big dark pressing on all sides ... and the person walking here, a whole life folded inside him, a life that has gone on to unfold elsewhere, whether in beauty or tragedy one will never know, having crossed your existence (and now mine) briefly and eternally ... acest blog este o lampă care îmi iluminează mulți străzi întunecate în labirintul de ființă ...

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  18. dear friends, thank you all so much for being with me there, in the light of that lamp, that short moment which can convey so much, which has the astonishing power to reverberate through my life, and now through yours as well - what a miracle is this.

    and again, i have to think about photography's miracle: it is too simple to say that a photograph just shows the world as we perceive it, because the time of our eye and the time of photography are different, this particular moment had escaped the eye, my eye in this case, i just saw a man passing but the photograph shows something else: an amazing configuration of the universe in which man and lamp become one, become the faceless light and the story of thousands, and glimmering leaves, the last leaves on a tree nearby, are the silent witnesses of this wonder. a wonder hidden in the most banal fact of life, a lamp by the roadside that quietly sheds its light on man.

    your generous words and rich interpretations shed so much light on this post as well, and what words could i ever find to convey my gratitude?

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  19. je te remercie, chere K'line, c'est vrai qu'on a toujours besoin de la lumiere d'une lampe, c'est une image qui condense tant de symbole de notre humanite, le besoin et le desir de protection, la generosite, la revelation...

    je t'embrasse et te souhaite une douce lumiere de fin d'automne...

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  20. Renée, meine Liebe, vielen Dank fuer das wunderschoene Geschenk, dieses Gedicht ist so schoen, dass ich auch dafuer irgendwann Bilder finden muss, ich werde es in meinem Herzen aufbewahren, wie kostbaren Mondschein, wie weissen Tau...

    ich umarme Dich ganz lieb und wuensche Dir eine wunderschoene Woche noch, voll Saenfte und Ruhe.

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  21. Roxana what a beautiful interpretation it is truly like a work of art in itself.


    You have a beautifully fluid heart and mind to detach your self in this way. Oh well maybe you should ignore this part ha ha. but focus on the first statement.

    hugs see you soon.

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