3 things hv governed my life:
The longing for love, the search for knowledge
And unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love i have seen
In a mystic miiature the prefiguring vision.
Of the heavens that saints and poets hv imagined.
With equal passion i have sought knowledge.
I hv wished to understand the hearts of people.
I hv wished to know y the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but i cannot, and i too suff