| On Work | sera'a lo zu'o gunka
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| Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work." | ni'o lo plixa gunka cu catlu lu pe'u ko tavla mi'a le zu'o gunka li'u
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| And he answered, saying: | .i lo prenu cu spuda lu
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| You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. | lonu do gunka cu mukti loza'i lonu do gasnu kei cu simsa lenu lo terdi .e lo terdi pruxi cu gasnu
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| For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite. | .iku'i lo zu'o cando cu nibli lenu da sepli lo citsi kei gi'e lenu da cliva le jmive muvdu noi lenu nobli muvdu .o'a.io fa'a le cimni
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| When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. | .i lonu do gunka cu cabna leli'i do pe'a flani poi ne'i le midju cu galfi lo secacra lo zgike
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| Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison? | .ipaunai xo do'o cuxna leza'i do tubnu poi ri savrunai je smaji lonu roloroda cabna sanga fi ri
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| Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. | .i roroi fi do cusku sedu'u lonu gunka tedapma .e lo segunka cu to'e zabna
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| But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, | .iku'i mi cusku fi do'o fe sedu'u lonu do gunka kei cu segunma le traji senva po lo terdi noi do pu bilga lo ra pe'a jbena
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| And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, | .ije lonu do di'i gunka cu krinu lonu do prami je'u lo jmive
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| And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. | .ije lo zu'o lo jmive prami cu pilno lo segunka kei krinu lo li'i cu djuno lo rai ne'i semipri po lo jmive
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| But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written. |
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| You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. |
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| And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, |
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| And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, |
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| And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, |
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| And all work is empty save when there is love; |
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| And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. |
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| And what is it to work with love? |
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| It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. |
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| It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. |
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| It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. |
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| It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, |
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| And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching. |
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| Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "he who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil. |
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| And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet." |
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| But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass; |
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| And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving. |
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| Work is love made visible. |
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| And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. |
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| For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. |
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| And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. |
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| And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night. | |