On Living

Living is no laughing matter
You must live with great seriousness
Like a squirrel, for example
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living
I mean living must be your whole life
Living is no laughing matter
You must take it seriously
So much so and to such a degree
That, for example, your hands tied behind your back
Your back to the wall
Or else in a laboratory
In your white coat and safety glasses
You can die for people
Even for people whose faces you've never seen
Even though you know living
Is the most real, the most beautiful thing
I mean, you must take living so seriously
That even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees
And not for your children, either
But because although you fear death you don't believe it
Because living, I mean, weighs heavier

Let's say we're seriously ill, need surgery
Which is to say we might not get up
From the white table
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
About going a little too soon
We'll still laugh at the jokes being told
We'll look out the window to see if it's raining
Or still wait anxiously
For the latest newscast
Let's say we're at the front
For something worth fighting for, say
There, in the first offensive, on that very day
We might fall on our face, dead
We'll notice with a curious anger
But we'll still worry ourselves to death
About the outcome of the war
Which could last years

Let's say we're in prison and close to fifty
And we have eighteen more years, say
Before the iron doors will open
We'll still live with the outside
With its people and animals, struggle and wind
I mean with the outside beyond the walls
I mean, however and wherever we are
We must live as if we will never die

This earth will grow cold, a star among stars
And one of the smallest
A gilded mote on blue velvet
I mean this, our great earth
This earth will grow cold one day
Not like a block of ice or a dead cloud even
But like an empty walnut it will float along
In pitch-black space
We must grieve for this now
We have to feel this sorrow now
For the world must be loved this much
If we're going to say "I lived"