On Pleasure

Then a hermit, who visited the cityonce a year, came forth and said, Speakto 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 afreedom-song.

And I fain would have you sing it withfullness of heart; yet I would not haveyou lose your hearts in the singing.

Some of your youth seek pleasure as ifit were all, and they are judged andrebuked.

I would not judge norrebuke them. I would have them seek.

For they shall find pleasure, but nother alone;

Seven are her sisters, and the least ofthem is more beautiful than pleasure.

Have you not heard of the man who wasdigging in the earth for roots and founda treasure?

And some of your elders rememberpleasures with regret like wrongscommitted in drunkenness.

But regret is the beclouding of the mindand not its chastisement.

They should remember their pleasureswith gratitude, as they would theharvest of a summer.

Yet if it comforts them to regret, letthem be comforted.

And there are among you those whoare neither young to seek nor old toremember;

And in their fear of seeking andremembering they shun all pleasures,lest they neglect the spirit or offendagainst it.

But even in their foregoing is theirpleasure.

And thus they too find a treasure thoughthey dig for roots with quivering hands.

But tell me, who is he that can offendthe spirit?

Shall the nightingale offend thestillness of the night, or the fireflythe stars?

And shall your flame or your smokeburden the wind?

Think you the spirit is a still poolwhich you can trouble with a staff?

Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasureyou do but store the desire in therecesses of your being.

Who knows but that which seems omittedtoday, waits for tomorrow?

Even your body knows its heritageand its rightful need and will not bedeceived.

And your body is the harp of your soul,

And it is yours to bring forth sweetmusic from it or confused sounds.

And now you ask in your heart, “Howshall we distinguish that which isgood in pleasure from that which is notgood?”

Go to your fields and your gardens, andyou shall learn that it is the pleasureof the bee to gather honey of theflower,

But it is also the pleasure of theflower to yield its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain oflife,

And to the flower a bee is a messengerof love,

And to both, bee and flower, the givingand the receiving of pleasure is a needand an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in yourpleasures like the flowers and the bees.