Life is a gift presented to you

There is one thing I learned from what I lived:

When you live something, you must live it fully

Your lover must be exhausted from your kisses

You must be exhausted from smelling a flower

 

One can look at the sky for hours

One can look for hours at the sea, at a bird, at a child

Living on this world is being one with it

Growing unbreakable roots into it

 

When you hug your friend, you must do it with all your power

You must be in a fight with all your muscles, body and passion

And when you lie on the hot sand,

You must rest like a grain of sand, like a leaf, like a stone

 

One must listen to all the beautiful music

Such that the sounds, the melodies fill inside

 

One must dive headfirst into this life

Like diving from a rock into an emerald sea

 

People you don't know must attract you to distant lands

You must live with the desire to read all the books and to know all the lives

You must exchange nothing with the happiness of drinking a glass of water

But for all the happiness there is, you must be filed with the longing to live

 

And you must also live grief, with honor, with all your presence

Because grief also maturates one, like happiness

Your blood must be intermixed with the large circulation of life

The never-ending, fresh blood of life must circulate in your veins

 

There is one thing I learned from what I lived:

When you live, you must live big, like being one with the rivers, the sky, and the whole universe

Because what we call lifetime is a gift presented to life

And life is a gift presented to you.

 

Ataol Behramoğlu ( 1942 - )

 

( In Explore - August 11, 2020 )

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