Poem for 3/31/22 - Psalm 1 translated by Norman Fischer

 Psalm 1: A Zen-Inspired Translation

Norman Fischer, Opening to You

 

Happy is the one who walks otherwise

Who stands otherwise

Than in the way of the twisted

Who does not sit in the seat of the scornful

But finds delight in the loveliness of things

And lives by that pattern all day and all night—

 

For this one is like a tree planted near a stream

That gives forth strong fruit in season

And whose leaf doesn’t wither

And whose branches spread wide—

 

Not so the heedless

 

They are like chaff scattered by the wind

Endlessly driven, they cannot occupy their place

And so can never be seen or embraced

And they can never be joined

 

What you see is always lovely and remembered

But the way of heedlessness is oblivion