F I S H I N G

Here is Ruben Darío’s great example of the  pantheist idea :  all things are part of the same being which is God.

The poet addresses the spider and the toad. They are both rather ugly, and he tells them that only the Lord is accountable :

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Greet the sun, Spider, and don’t be sulky;
Give your thanks to the Lord, Toad, since you exist.

Try and be what you are, Riddles, and leave responsibilites to the Norms who in turn will send them to the Almighty.

Sing, Cricket, in the light of the moon, and let the Bear dance.

Saluda al sol, araña, no seas rencorosa,
da tus gracias a Dios, oh sapo, pues que eres.
El peludo cangrejo tiene espinas de rosa
y los moluscos reminiscencias de mujeres.
Sabed ser lo que sois, enigmas, siendo formas;
dejad la responsabilidad a las Normas,
que a su vez la enviarán al Todopoderoso…
Toca, grillo, a la luz de la luna; y dance el oso.

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Rilke too is a pantheist, but he feels highly solemn about it  and there is no room for common sense:

……Every Angel is terrible, and yet I
sing to you, almost deadly birds of the soul,
knowing   what you are.

Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich. Und dennoch, weh mir,
ansing ich euch, fast tödliche Vögel der Seele,
wissend um euch.

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That’s the problem with pantheism.  Its proportions are  not human, and so there is a single-minded, but sentimental insistence on how large, immense, infinite the universe is, and this suggests that man is infinitely small, minute, a microbe or less.

The question is not whether these proportions are  a scientific fact, which at any rate can’t be known, but whether that  is a good thing to preach even though it can’t be known…..

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