Poem

by

René Daumal


One cannot stay on the summit forever—

One has to come down again.

So why bother in the first place? Just this.

What is above knows what is below—

But what is below does not know what is above.


One climb, one sees—

One descends and sees no longer

But one has seen!


There is an art of conducting one's self in

The lower regions by the memory of

What one saw higher up.


When one can no longer see,

One does at least still know.



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