Sunday, April 13, 2014

Palm Sunday




"And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet


"The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark are
how the senses explore the reality of the elephant."
—Rumi, "Elephant in the Dark," 
translation by Coleman Barks


Palm of the Hand


Hand’s inner self.  Sole, that does its walking
just with feelings.  That holds itself face up
and, as in a mirror,
receives from heaven its own meandering pathways.
That has learned to walk on water
when it splashes.
That walks on wells,
transforming every journey.
That finds itself in other hands
and turns them into landscapes,
wanders and arrives in them,
fills them with arrival.

—Rainer Maria Rilke
translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy




image:  Henna Expressions

2 comments:

  1. A re-interpretation of Palm Sunday, interesting!. I love Rilke's verses and the picture too. Henna is a lot more interesting than tattooing! More symbolic, mythological. And much prettier. There seems to be something sacred in it.

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  2. This is a Rilke I'd never seen before—always great to find new ones. And to be able to put it in the context of henna.

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