On Clothes | |
And the weaver said, "Speak to us of Clothes." | |
And he answered: | |
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. | |
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain. | |
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment, | |
For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind. | |
Some of you say, "It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear." | |
But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread. | |
And when his work was done he laughed in the forest. | |
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. | |
And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind? | |
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. |