Learn To Be Quiet

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Cate
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Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:27 am

Learn To Be Quiet

Post by Cate »

Learn To Be Quiet

You do not need to leave your room .
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Franz Kafka
This is quoted on the net many times, sometimes as a poem sometimes as just a quote. The first line seems to change. I like this version, but sometimes it says, You do not need to do anything.
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mat james
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by mat james »

Great quote Cate.
'just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.'
I camped out among sand-hills in the red sand country out from the opal fields for a for a few months, one year, and the days (and nights in particular) did 'roll in ecstasy' at my feet.
Most of the poems I posted on my "Rusty old and beautiful" thread were written in that 'still and solitary' spot.
The first line seems to change.
Kafka wrote in German, as I remember it, so the translations into English vary a bit I suppose.
"He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague," (Wiki)

MatbbgJ
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
Cate
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by Cate »

I camped out among sand-hills in the red sand country out from the opal fields for a for a few months, one year, and the days (and nights in particular) did 'roll in ecstasy' at my feet.
Most of the poems I posted on my "Rusty old and beautiful" thread were written in that 'still and solitary' spot.
The quiet does you good, I like many of the poems from that thread.
I like to be quiet, but it can be uncomfortable, you have to ease yourself into it.
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mat james
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by mat james »

Not too many poeple are prepared to 'let the world offer itself freely', in solitude.
It is too scary, too difficult,too alone. But mine has always, fundamentally, been a quest/flight "of the solitary to the Solitary", as Plotinus put it.
Unless of course I was invited out into the long grass!

Merry Christmas xxx
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
lonndubh
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by lonndubh »

mat james wrote:Unless of course I was invited out into the long grass!
Probably the 'roll in ecstasy ' that Kafka was on about Mat :lol: :lol:
Sweet memories :!:
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mat james
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by mat james »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Kafka was no cockroach in these matters.
The roll in ecstacy :razz: :razz: :D :D
very true, lonndubh, sweet memories indeed.
...and maybe future hopes and fantasies as well;
it is always fun to let god and woman fight for my attention:
poor god :(

MatbbgJ
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
Cate
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Re: Learn To Be Quiet

Post by Cate »

Here's to sweet memories, future hopes and flattened grass.

XTC - Grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozu8KGFH-CU
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