Doris Kareva
You aren't better than anyone,
You aren't worse than anyone.
You have been given the world.
See what there is to see.
Protect what is around you,
hold who is there beside you.
All creatures in their own way
are funny -
and fragile.
xx
The question isn't
how to be in style
but
how to live in truth
in the face of all the winds?
With mindfulness, courage,
patience, sympathy -
how to remain brave
when the spirit fails?
xx
Idleness is often empowering,
recreating oneself -
just as the moon gradually
grows full once again,
a battery surely and
steadily recharges,
so everything, everyone
must have time for the self -
for mirth and laziness
time to be human.
Doris Kareva
1958
translated from the Estonian by Tina Aleman
