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Friday, October 23, 2009

Sölle on limits, transcendence, and the Communion of Saints

At a peace gathering

We’re not only ten thousand I said
there are more of us here
the dead of both wars
are with us

A journalist came and asked
how could I know that
haven’t you seen them
i ask the clueless guy
haven’t you heard your grandmother
groaning when they started it up again
do you live all alone
without any dead who drop in
for a drink with you
do you really think
you are only yourself

****--Dorothee Sölle
******The Mystery of Death
******2007 (posthumous book - Sölle died in 2003 with the manuscript in draft)

The English version of the poem is by the book's translators, Nancy Lukens-Rumscheidt and Martin Lukens-Rumscheidt. The German original, "Auf einer Friedensversammlung," appeared in Dorothee Sölle, Loben ohne Lugen (Berlin, Wolfgang Fietkau, 2000).
Photo by the blogger New York Portraits, 2008.
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3 comments:

  1. lindyOctober 31, 2009 at 11:14 PM

    Oh, Jane, I love that... We should all be blessed with a few dead friends who drop in from time to time. They do live with us, don't they?

    I seem able to get blogger blogs today. Maybe a lucky break or maybe I've done something right! Hope for the best.

    Love,

    Lindy

    ReplyDelete
  2. June ButlerNovember 1, 2009 at 7:22 AM

    Oh my. Says it all, doesn't it?

    Lord, have mercy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LindyJanuary 22, 2017 at 6:10 AM

    Thanks, Jane.

    ReplyDelete

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