With A Thousand Eyes
A few lines from Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha have taken residence in my mind thanks to a comment from Dan Oestreich to a previous post. I guess I am supposed to pass the lines on.
Tenderly, he looked into the rushing water, into the transparent green, into the crystal lines of its drawing, so rich in secrets. Bright pearls he saw rising from the deep, quiet bubbles of air floating on the reflecting surface, the blue of the sky being depicted in it.
With a thousand eyes, the river looked at him, with green ones, with white ones, with crystal ones, with sky-blue ones. How did he love this water, how did it delight him, how grateful was he to it! In his heart he heard the voice talking, which was newly awaking, and it told him: Love this water! Stay near it! Learn from it!
Oh yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. He who would understand this water and its secrets, so it seemed to him, would also understand many other things, many secrets, all secrets.
I suppose that living in a desert for ten years (as I have) produces a yearning for rivers in a person from Pennsylvania.
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Tags: Dan Oestreich, Hesse, Lehign River, Newfoundland, Siddhartha
What’s the matter with me,
I don’t have much to say,
Daylight sneakin’ through the window
And I’m still in this all night café.
Walkin’ to and fro beneath the moon
Out to where the trucks are rollin’ slow,
To sit down on this bank of sand
And watch the river flow.
People disagreeing on just about ev’ry thing, yeah,
Makes you stop and all wonder why.
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
Who just couldn’t help but cry.
Oh, this ol’ river keeps on rollin’ though,
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow,
And as long as it does I’ll just sit here
And watch the river flow.
Watch the river flow,
Watchin’ the river flow,
Watchin’ the river flow
But I’ll sit down on this bank of sand
And watch the river flow.
– Bob Dylan
Thanks for the reminder of that Dan. I had a good laugh over it, and I’m noodling around with an idea for another book and it involves a river. So river-ana is welcome here right now!
I also just recently bought the digital Dylan collection that contains this song.
Dylan and Siddhartha — pretty good bookends, I’d say. I’ll be looking forward to hearing about your book when it is time….
In the meantime, your thoughts and photographs here are a delight and an inspiration.
Dylan, Siddhartha, and A River Runs Through It — that’ll do for now.