Weltlauf*

Hat man viel, so wird man bald
Noch viel mehr dazubekommen.
Wer nur wenig hat, dem wird
Auch das Wenige genommen.

Wenn du aber gar nichts hast,
Ach, so lasse dich begraben -
Denn ein Recht zum Leben, Lump,
Haben nur, die etwas haben.**

--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
 

Not fully knowing where to begin,
We always start somewhere
Where we left off--perhaps a dream
That we are trying to remember,
Perhaps a story, that we read somewhere,
That we're now trying to retell,
Perhaps a piece composed to music
Is what prompts us so--
We recognize in our collective past
There are countless stories to be told--
Now, as I look at you in silence,
I recollect meeting your eyes before,
In your inquisitive smile
I see a thousand lifetimes that we shared--
For we are all connected by some
collective thoughts--
Some bright and beautiful, some dark
And painful that haunt us to this day--
But light and darkness, beauty and ugliness
Are only known through their antitheses--
For what is laughter without tears?
What's pain without joy?
And our eyes are infinite eyes of God,
Each seeing some new facet of creation,
But we can't see that--perhaps that's why
We hurt each other so--
Why do we act like six blind men,
Groping an elephant, unable to describe it?
Or is this life a mere test
That throws us here for a millisecond
On the cosmic clock to learn
The secret of God's inner beauty?
Yet how vain and shallow we must be
Not to see it in these constellations, these lakes,
These trees, these mountains, this tiny
Grain of sand…
How hollow our accomplishment must be
If we must trample all that is beautiful
To build a giant shopping mall,
Where we can shop for anything we desire…
But that's our ruin--we get too comfortable,
Too attached to things--today it's VCRs, TVs,
Cell phones, stereos, computers, DVDs,
Video games, sports cars, and virtual sex,
As we insatiably want more and more and more…

So human life's reduced to home entertainment,
Sponsored by rape and pillage of the Earth,
Whose poor are deceived by sumptuous
Promises of another world,
Furnished with ample viands and
Enticing virgins.
Yes, we all live like monkeys, chasing
Bananas and watching other monkeys play--
That's how we live and how we teach
Each other--in God we trust
to make the money, make the money
to buy and buy and buy
consumer goods…
For it's the economy that drives the world--
So forgive them, Father, for they are blind
And know not what they do…
 

                                                        August 7, 2002
                                                    --Alexander Shaumyan
 
 
 

____________________________________
*German: "the way of the world."

**Here's my translation of Heine's poem:
 

  The Way of the World

Those who have a lot, will soon
Receive even more.
Those who have little, will see
Their little taken away.

And if you have nothing at all,
Let them bury you at once--
For the right to life, you tramp,
Belongs to those with something.
 

You can listen to Karlheinz Böhm read Heine's poem Weltlauf
by going here:  http://heinrich-heine.com/toene/welttsp.wav