A contemplation on soul.
The great clockwork—inscribed in the heavens and tracing its tracks with planets and stars—transforms this world and the heavens. It raises mountains from the seas and shifts valleys; causes forests to grow and decay; changes nature through the seasons and affects human history. The soul beholds a grand, wondrous, and marvelous performance. Spirit has assigned the soul a role: to journey through time from the beginning of the world to its end. The soul moves swiftly, like a bird diving through the tunnel of the ages that rush past: faces, smiles, sobs, solemnity, wit, joy, pain, children, people, men, women, poor, rich—all pass before her. She does not know these figures, yet she feels strangely familiar and close to them. They are human beings, destinies, life stories through which the soul flies—some long past, some not yet lived. The soul does not see them unfolding from without, but rather from within—as if she were standing on a spinning top rotating upon its own axis. The most hidden and innermost parts, the self—most familiar to ourselves and invisible to everyone else—the soul witnesses on her flight through time. She does not know these people or their destinies. She merely senses what moves them, what they wish for; she senses their fears and worries, their struggles and joys. She sees all these sides of humanity from within, in the depths of a clockwork that turns in upon itself: cries, mouths shut, gazes from brown eyes, hoods, ornate hairstyles—the soul surveys countless peoples and cultures and sees the great cultural figures striding above—mighty spirits who teach humanity the sciences and the arts. Some of these spirits wear blue armor and command shadows and wispy mists; others are entirely green, wrapped in vibrant robes and cloaks, drawing sap from the plants; still others are light brown and slender as bamboo forests. They fell invisible trees in the spirit realm and pass them on to the peoples who build civilizations and pursue the sciences on Earth.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Mathew Schwartz
