time present time past
future eternally
unredeemable
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
From Burnt Norton as it appears in Four Quartets (Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York, 1943) by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Burnt Norton opens with two lines in Greek.
τοΰ λόγου δ’έόντος ξυνοΰ ζώουσιν οί πολλοί
ώς ίδίαν έχοντες φρόνησιν.
And …
όδoς άνω κάτω μία και ώυτή
They are both quotes from Heraclitus.
“Though wisdom is common, the many live as if they have wisdom of their own”
“the way upward and the way downward is one and the same.”
But to what purpose?
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves …
I do not know.
All time is unredeemable.
(Full disclosure, the video included with this post was created by Brett, my friend and coworker here on the Island. Brett has a pretty cool job. His is the effort to capture what it is that makes you want to spend your vacation on the island. He does a pretty good job with what he has to work with. One of the perks of this job is getting to see his stuff before the rest of the world does.)
No Haiku For You 