Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Have patience with everything
unresolved in your heart and try
to love the questions themselves,
as if theywere locked rooms,
or bookswritten in a very foreign language.
Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is to live everything.
Live thequestions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually,without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.