The Prophet: On Pleasure

On Pleasure
Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said, "Speak to us of Pleasure."
And he answered, saying:
Pleasure is a freedom song,
But it is not freedom.
It is the blossoming of your desires,
But it is not their fruit.
It is a depth calling unto a height,
But it is not the deep nor the high.
It is the caged taking wing,
But it is not space encompassed.
Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.
And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.
Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked.
I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek.
For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone:
Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.
Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?
And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness.
But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.
They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.
Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.
And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember;
And in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.
But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.
And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.
But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?
Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?
And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?
Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?
Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.
Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?
Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.
And your body is the harp of your soul,
And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.
And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.
People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

The Prophet le prije ctuca / le pijyctu (the wise teacher)
The Prophet: The Coming of the Ship .i nu selklama le bloti
The Prophet: On Love lo ka prami
The Prophet: On Marriage lo nu speni
The Prophet: On Children lo panzi
The Prophet: On Giving lo nu dunda
The Prophet: On Eating and Drinking lo nu citka je pinxe
The Prophet: On Work lo zu'o gunka
The Prophet: On Joy and Sorrow lo li'i gleki je badri
The Prophet: On Houses lo zdani
The Prophet: On Clothes lo taxfu
The Prophet: On Buying and Selling lo nu tevecnu je vecnu
The Prophet: On Crime and Punishment lo zekri .e lo nu sfasa
The Prophet: On Laws lo flalu
The Prophet: On Freedom lo za'i zifre
The Prophet: On Reason and Passion lo nu krinu pensi .e lo se cinmo
The Prophet: On Pain lo nu dunku
The Prophet: On Self-Knowledge lo nu sevzi djuno
The Prophet: On Teaching lo nu ctuca
The Prophet: On Friendship lo nu pendo
The Prophet: On Talking lo nu tavla
The Prophet: On Time lo temci
The Prophet: On Good and Evil lo ka vrude .e lo ka pacna
The Prophet: On Prayer lo nu jdaselsku
The Prophet: On Pleasure lo za'i pluka
The Prophet: On Beauty lo ka melbi
The Prophet: On Religion lo lijde
The Prophet: On Death lo nu morsi
The Prophet: The Farewell le nu cusku zo co'o

Created by Eppcott. Last Modification: Friday 13 of January, 2006 19:25:38 GMT by Eppcott.