EMBODIED FRAGMENTS: East vs. West

Monday, August 3, 2009

East vs. West

My mother recently received a birthday card that charmed and challenged me in countless ways. It read: "Eastern philosophy tells us to live in the present...Western philosophy tells us to open the present."

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Hölderlin: "Sonnenuntergang"

Wo bist du? trunken dämmert die Seele mir
Von aller deiner Wonne; denn eben ist's,
Dass ich gelauscht, wie, goldner Töne
Voll, der entzückende Sonnenjüngling

Sein Abendlied auf himmlischer Leier spielt';
Es tönten rings die Wälder und Hügel nach.
Doch fern ist er zu frommen Völkern,
Die ihn noch ehren, hinweggegangen.

[Where are you? My soul looms drunken
With all your joy; for it is just this moment
That I was listening to the
Entrancing youthful sun-god

Play his evening song on a heavenly lyre;
The woods and hills re-echoed his golden tones.
But he is gone, far away to pious people
Who still revere him.]