Rebirth

stars flashing through our hearts

A poem for today, Ash Wednesday:

REBIRTH

Corridors of the soul! The soul that is like a young woman!

You clear light

and the brief history

and the joy of a new life . . .

Oh turn and be born again, and walk the road,

and find once more the lost path!

And turn and feel in our own hand

the warmth of the good hand

of our mother . . . And walk through life in dreams

out of love of the hand that leads us.

* * *

In our soul everything

moves guided by a mysterious hand:

ununderstandable, not speaking,

we know nothing of our own souls.

The deepest words

of the wise men teach us

the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows,

or the sound of the water when it is flowing.

ANTONIO MACHADO

translated by Robert Bly