Wild Geese

Wild Geese
Mary Oliver
 
“You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.” 
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

100,976 Replies to “Wild Geese”

  1. 『CM NOW』 2016年3月号、玄光社、2016年2月10日、74頁。強姦等だけでなく、より広い意味での日中戦争中の軍紀について、当時の陸軍が統計資料に基いて分析した「支那事變ニ於ケル犯罪非違ヨリ觀タル軍紀風紀ノ實相竝ニ之ガ振肅對策」の内容が防衛省防衛研究所「戦史研究年報」第10号(2007年3月)所収の『大東亜戦争期の日本陸軍における犯罪及び非行に関する一考察』(弓削欣也)で紹介されています。

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