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.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
Learn To Be Quiet
Learn To Be Quiet
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
Great quote Cate.
Most of the poems I posted on my "Rusty old and beautiful" thread were written in that 'still and solitary' spot.
"He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague," (Wiki)
MatbbgJ
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.'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.'
Most of the poems I posted on my "Rusty old and beautiful" thread were written in that 'still and solitary' spot.
Kafka wrote in German, as I remember it, so the translations into English vary a bit I suppose.The first line seems to change.
"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.
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
The quiet does you good, I like many of the poems from that thread.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.
I like to be quiet, but it can be uncomfortable, you have to ease yourself into it.
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
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
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.
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
Probably the 'roll in ecstasy ' that Kafka was on about Matmat james wrote:Unless of course I was invited out into the long grass!
Sweet memories
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
Kafka was no cockroach in these matters.
The roll in ecstacy
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.
Re: Learn To Be Quiet
Here's to sweet memories, future hopes and flattened grass.
XTC - Grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozu8KGFH-CU
XTC - Grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozu8KGFH-CU