The Ideal and the Actual Life
Forever fair, forever calm and bright,
Life flies on plumage, zephyr-light,
For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice—
Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb,
And ‘mid the universal ruin, bloom
The rosy days of gods—With man, the choice,
Timid and anxious, hesitates between
The sense’s pleasure and the soul’s content;
While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen,
The beams of both are bent.
Seekest thou on earth the life of gods to share,
Safe in the realm of death?—beware
To pluck the fruits that glitter to thine eye;
Content thyself with gazing on their glow—
Short are the joys possession can bestow,
And in possession sweet desire will die…
Friedrich Schiller, circa 1790
(Poem fragment, translated from the German.)
*****
We have been up to our mountaintop and safely – though sore-footed! – back down. Home late last night and today we are, in memory, still walking among the heights, not wanting to return to the prosaic world quite yet. It is seldom that the fulfillment of a small dream is better than hoped for; this was one of those rare occasions. The ideal and the actual, at one with each other!
Leaves & Pages 
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