Don’t break a bird’s wings and then tell it to fly. Don’t break a heart and then tell it to love. Don’t break a soul and then tell it to be happy. Don’t see the worst in a person and expect them to see the...
The houses I had they took away from me. The times happened to be unpropitious: war, destruction, exile; sometimes the hunter hits the migratory birds, sometimes he doesn’t hit them. Hunting was good in my time, many felt the pellet; the rest circle aimlessly or go mad in the shelters. Don’t...
Meditations pure were ours Side by side, along the ways; We held each other's hand without Speaking, among the hidden flowers. Alone we walked as if betrothed, Lost in the green night of the fields; We shared this fruit of fairy reels, The moon, to madmen well disposed. And then, we were dead...
April 1918 Books All the books of this world Will bring you no happiness Yet they secretly show you the way, Back to yourself. There is everything, that you need, Sun, star and moon, Because the light, after which you ask, Lives within yourself. Wisdom, that you long have sought, Inside the books, Shines from every page- Because...
My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find That it excels all other bliss Which God or nature hath assign’d. Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave. No princely port, nor wealthy store, No force to win a victory, No...
1901 Request When you give me your little hand, Your hand that says so many unsaid things, Have I ever asked you then, If you love me? For I do not want you to love me, I only want to know that you are near And that sometimes, mutely and quietly, You give...
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. Why isn’t anything going on in the senate? Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? Because the barbarians are coming today. What’s the point of senators making laws now? Once the barbarians are here, they’ll...
Learn the simplest things! For you whose time has come it is never too late! Learn your ABC, it is not enough, but learn it! Do not let it discourage you, begin! You must know everything! You must take over the leadership! Learn, man in the asylum! Learn, man in prison! Learn, wife...
Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and look abroad. From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before. In the...
Nero wasn’t worried at all when he heard the utterance of the Delphic Oracle: “Beware the age of seventy-three.” Plenty of time to enjoy himself still. He’s thirty. The deadline the god has given him is quite enough to cope with future dangers. Now, a little tired, he’ll return to Rome— but wonderfully...
