words both nimble and powerful
And he replied, seeing my soul in tears:
"He must go by another way who would escape this wilderness, for the mad beast that fleers before you there, suffers no man to pass."
|88-91| Dante Alighieri - The Inferno
44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way,
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay,
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee,
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
As soon as think the place where he would be.
65
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?
O fearful meditation, where alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
|Sonnets 44, 65| William Shakespeare
What a blessing and worthy adversary it would be to conquer the pen. I suppose time only changes the delivery of life's address. Tribulation persists. Greatness is timeless.
I hope my message to one day reflect the beautiful cavalier of these words.
Let us not lose the aesthetic power of language read, heard, and spoken.
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