Future Hi: Nicos Kazantzakis on the Void

July 23, 2006

Nicos Kazantzakis on the Void

Nicos Kazantzakis, from his book The Saviors of God Spiritual Exercises,

A command rings out within me: "Dig! What do you see?"
"Men and birds, water and stones."
"Dig deeper! What do you see?"
"Ideas and dreams, fantasies and lightning flashes!"
"Dig deeper! What do you see?"
"I see nothing! A mute Night, as thick as death. It must be death."
"Dig deeper!"
"Ah! I cannot penetrate the dark partition! I hear voices and weeping. I hear the fluttering of wings on the other shore."
"Don't weep! Don't weep! They are not on the other shore. The voices, the weeping, and the wings are your own heart."

Posted by paul at July 23, 2006 06:58 PM

Comments

Yeah, that's cute. Though, as it's metaphorical (and in a certain respect, tooting my own horn in saying the following) I find it not as effective as more specific, sometimes actually simple, language. (This is related to, and telling of me in, my general lack of preference for poetry. Incidentally, Bennu, I responded to your, and MCP2012's, response in the last blog entry.)

Posted by: state at July 24, 2006 09:40 AM

Posted by: sb at July 24, 2006 07:36 PM

Nice! Listen closely.

"If you don't trust your own nature, how can you trust your mistrusting of it?"

Posted by: TJ at July 24, 2006 09:58 PM

Astute, TJ. Yet, one can dispel trust, altogether....but, and I don't mean this sarcastically, you don't want to be transhuman....still, I couldn't resist.

Posted by: state at July 25, 2006 09:32 AM

"Saviors of God" was truly groundbreaking for its time ... I discovered it several years ago and was deeply moved after reading it in one sitting ...

It used to be available online in its entirety; I can only find a cached version now:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:pRHvrTvUKXMJ:www.angel.net/~nic/askitiki.html+%22saviors+of+god%22+kazantzakis&hl=en&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a&strip=1

ENJOY!
;)

NaMaStE

Posted by: Upwinger at August 1, 2006 08:54 PM