The Cycle of Spring - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
_Dada_
There is another verse that makes it clearer:
_There are numerous stars in the midnight sky, Which hang in the air for no purpose; If they would only come down to earth, For the street lighting they might be useful._
I see we must make clearer our meaning. Catch him. Let's raise him up, shoulder high, and take him back to his den.
_Dada_
Why are you so excited to-day? Have you any particular business to do?
Yes, we have very urgent business,--very urgent indeed.
_Dada_
What is your business about?
We are out to seek a play for our Spring festival.
_Dada_
Play! Day and night, play!
(_They sing._)
_We are free, my friends, from the fear of work, For we know that work is play,--the play of life.
It is Play, to fight and toss, between life and death; It is Play that flashes in the laughter of light in the infinite heart; It roars in the wind, and surges in the sea._
Oh, here comes our Leader. Brothers--our Leader, our Leader.
_Leader_
Hallo! What a noise you make!
Was it that which made you come out of doors?
_Leader_
Yes.
Well, we did it for that very purpose.
_Leader_
You don't want me to remain indoors?
Why remain indoors? This outer world has been made with a lavish expenditure of sun and moon and stars. Let us enjoy it, and then we can save G.o.d's face for indulging in such extravagance.
_Leader_
What were you discussing?
This:
(_They sing_.)
_Play blooms in flower and ripens in fruit In the suns.h.i.+ne of eternal youth.
Play bursts up in the blood-red fire, and licks into ashes the decaying and the dead._
Our Dada's objection was about this play.
_Dada_
Shall I tell you the reason why?
Yes, Dada, you may tell us, but we shan't promise to listen.
_Dada_
Here it is:
_Time is the capital of work, And Play is its defalcation.
Play rifles the house, and then wastes its spoil, Therefore the wise call it worse than useless._
_Chandra_
But surely, Dada, you are talking nonsense. Time itself is Play.
Its only object is Pas-time.
_Dada_
Then what is Work?
_Chandra_
Work is the dust raised by the pa.s.sing of Time.
_Dada_
Leader, you must give us your answers.
_Leader_
No. I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another.
That is my leaders.h.i.+p.
_Dada_
