“If we were not so single-mindedabout keeping our lives movingand for once could do nothing,perhaps a huge silencemight interrupt this sadnessof never understanding ourselvesand of threatening ourselves with deathPerhaps the world can teach usas when everything seems deadbut later proves to be alive.”

“Now we will count to twelveand we will all keep still.For once on the face of the earthlet's not speak in any language,let's stop for one second,and not move our arms so much.It would be an exotic momentwithout rush, without engines,we would all be togetherin a sudden strangeness.Fishermen in the cold seawould not harm whalesand the man gathering saltwould look at his hurt hands.Those who prepare green wars,wars with gas, wars with fire,victory with no survivors,would put on clean clothesand walk about with their brothersin the shade, doing nothing.What I want should not be confusedwith total inactivity.Life is what it is about;I want no truck with death.If we were not so single-mindedabout keeping our lives moving,and for once could do nothing,perhaps a huge silencemight interrupt this sadnessof never understanding ourselvesand of threatening ourselves with death.Perhaps the earth can teach usas when everything seems deadand later proves to be alive.Now I'll count up to twelveand you keep quiet and I will go.”

“Everything is so alive, that I can be alive. Without moving I can see it all. In your life I see everything that lives.”

“When everything seems to be set to show me off as intelligent, the fool I always keep hidden takes over all that I say.”

“LXXIXWhen I die, I want your hands on my eyes.I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands to pass their freshness over me once more.I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together,to continue to walk on the sand we walk on.I want what I love to continue to live,and you whom I love and sang above everything else.to continue to flourish, full-flowered.So that you can reach everything my love directs you to. So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,so that everything can learn the reason for my song.”

“This time is difficult, wait for me:we will live it out vividly.Give me your small hand:we will rise and suffer,we will feel and rejoice.We are once more the pairwho lived in bristling places,in harsh nests in the rock.This time is difficult, wait for mewith a basket, with a shovel,with your shoes and your clothes.Now we need each othernot only for the carnations' sake,not only to look for honey:we need our handsto wash with and to make fire,and so let our difficult timestand up to infinitywith four hands and four eyes.”

“You must know that I do not love and that I love you,because everything alive has its two sides;a word is one wing of silence,fire has its cold half.I love you in order to begin to love you,to start infinity againand never to stop loving you:that’s why I do not love you yet.I love you, and I do not love you, as if I heldkeys in my hand: to a future of joy-a wretched, muddled fate-My love has two lives, in order to love you.-Sonnet XLIV”