Please
Call Me by My True Names Don't
say that I will depart tomorrow
even today I am still arriving. Look
deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be
a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to
be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a
stone. I
still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope. The
rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive. I
am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that
swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I
am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the
grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog. I
am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And
I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I
am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself
into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my
heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving. I
am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am
the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people
dying
slowly in a forced-labor camp. My
joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My
pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans. Please
call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so
I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please
call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can
be left open,
the door of compassion.
Thich
Nhat Hanh 1989 | 