I was two calves in a flock of birds flying, without a heart that could sing or a wing that could turn around. The wind took us towards the west until we no longer knew: Is this our first round of precedence or the last round? I did not know that we were confederates and that we had many names, and that we were fools who had not been afflicted by the logic of birds and the secret of “Farid al-Din” except fanaticism.
We were not looking for a path to the door of heaven, but rather we searched for paradise on earth. We heard stories about it, we saw pictures of it, so we said: It is the kingdom of the mind, and its people are rational, and it is the land of God, there is neither East nor West, and all people are its inhabitants, equal. Then we flew towards it in search of the secret, but we did not find anything except this affliction: exhausted cities, empty hearts, and debtors asking God about the story of Cain and Abel.
The wealth of the poor is a state between two allies: the rich and the powerful. Prostitution is the craft of politicians. As for the wise, they are the mind that suggests to the Caesar before the pure: that God’s creation is of different races, and they are of various orders, and all the weak are sheep in the Caesar’s forest, and the Caesar is the Lord of the strong.
We looked: and we were, as we had started, separated, and the forest had neither manna nor quail, nor any consolation. Aristotle inspires Alexander to invade and conquer the tired cities and tempts him to kill the princes. As I looked at this fate and saw the human being in the pit, crippled, seeking shelter, and I saw the Caesar still as he was, a Titan who had the power to conclude, veto, and manage matters, I said: Then there must be another journey, and a final journey.
Another trip? To where? And all the earth is Caesar's garden, and on its edges are soldiers who set up a thousand camps for him and sing drunkenly the poetry of Virgil while Rome struts? Another trip and nothing has changed since the earth turned around us, and the monkey became a thinking human? Another journey with a dagger in your back, a spear on your chest, and an exploding mine next to you? Another trip and nothing remains of the flock except a few flying birds?
Let it be (I said), for silence is more dangerous. Let it be (I said), for today is dustier, and tomorrow the horizon may become clearer and the soul may become clearer and we will see a path to wisdom that no tyrant has known and Caesar has not taken.
I said: There must then be another journey and a final journey, and let our journey be in the human tunnel, between good and evil, and in the cave of the darkness of the soul, in the well of conscience. I said: We must have another hope other than living in this hellfire. Then I spread my wings and flew far and deep, but I was still flying alone.
We were not looking for a path to the door of heaven, but rather we searched for paradise on earth. We heard stories about it, we saw pictures of it, so we said: It is the kingdom of the mind, and its people are rational, and it is the land of God, there is neither East nor West, and all people are its inhabitants, equal. Then we flew towards it in search of the secret, but we did not find anything except this affliction: exhausted cities, empty hearts, and debtors asking God about the story of Cain and Abel.
The wealth of the poor is a state between two allies: the rich and the powerful. Prostitution is the craft of politicians. As for the wise, they are the mind that suggests to the Caesar before the pure: that God’s creation is of different races, and they are of various orders, and all the weak are sheep in the Caesar’s forest, and the Caesar is the Lord of the strong.
We looked: and we were, as we had started, separated, and the forest had neither manna nor quail, nor any consolation. Aristotle inspires Alexander to invade and conquer the tired cities and tempts him to kill the princes. As I looked at this fate and saw the human being in the pit, crippled, seeking shelter, and I saw the Caesar still as he was, a Titan who had the power to conclude, veto, and manage matters, I said: Then there must be another journey, and a final journey.
Another trip? To where? And all the earth is Caesar's garden, and on its edges are soldiers who set up a thousand camps for him and sing drunkenly the poetry of Virgil while Rome struts? Another trip and nothing has changed since the earth turned around us, and the monkey became a thinking human? Another journey with a dagger in your back, a spear on your chest, and an exploding mine next to you? Another trip and nothing remains of the flock except a few flying birds?
Let it be (I said), for silence is more dangerous. Let it be (I said), for today is dustier, and tomorrow the horizon may become clearer and the soul may become clearer and we will see a path to wisdom that no tyrant has known and Caesar has not taken.
I said: There must then be another journey and a final journey, and let our journey be in the human tunnel, between good and evil, and in the cave of the darkness of the soul, in the well of conscience. I said: We must have another hope other than living in this hellfire. Then I spread my wings and flew far and deep, but I was still flying alone.