On Living Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFBGGHIGJDKEEGLBM B A GNDOPQEGRSTTUBVWFGTF XYZA2A A QB2C2D2E2TF2G2H2I2J2 J2K2T H2| I | A |
| - | |
| Living is no laughing matter | B |
| you must live with great seriousness | C |
| like a squirrel for example | D |
| I mean without looking for something beyond and above living | E |
| I mean living must be your whole occupation | F |
| Living is no laughing matter | B |
| you must take it seriously | G |
| so much so and to such a degree | G |
| that for example your hands tied behind your back | H |
| your back to the wall | I |
| or else in a laboratory | G |
| in your white coat and safety glasses | J |
| you can die for people | D |
| even for people whose faces you've never seen | K |
| even though you know living | E |
| is the most real the most beautiful thing | E |
| I mean you must take living so seriously | G |
| that even at seventy for example you'll plant olive trees | L |
| and not for your children either | B |
| but because although you fear death you don't believe it | M |
| because living I mean weighs heavier | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| Let's say you're seriously ill need surgery | G |
| which is to say we might not get | N |
| from the white table | D |
| Even though it's impossible not to feel sad | O |
| about going a little too soon | P |
| we'll still laugh at the jokes being told | Q |
| we'll look out the window to see it's raining | E |
| or still wait anxiously | G |
| for the latest newscast | R |
| Let's say we're at the front | S |
| for something worth fighting for say | T |
| There in the first offensive on that very day | T |
| we might fall on our face dead | U |
| We'll know this with a curious anger | B |
| but we'll still worry ourselves to death | V |
| about the outcome of the war which could last years | W |
| Let's say we're in prison | F |
| and close to fifty | G |
| and we have eighteen more years say | T |
| before the iron doors will open | F |
| We'll still live with the outside | X |
| with its people and animals struggle and wind | Y |
| I mean with the outside beyond the walls | Z |
| I mean however and wherever we are | A2 |
| we must live as if we will never die | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| This earth will grow cold | Q |
| a star among stars | B2 |
| and one of the smallest | C2 |
| a gilded mote on blue velvet | D2 |
| I mean this our great earth | E2 |
| This earth will grow cold one day | T |
| not like a block of ice | F2 |
| or a dead cloud even | G2 |
| but like an empty walnut it will roll along | H2 |
| in pitch black space | I2 |
| You must grieve for this right now | J2 |
| you have to feel this sorrow now | J2 |
| for the world must be loved this much | K2 |
| if you're going to say quot I lived quot | T |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Trans by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk | H2 |
Nazim Hikmet
(1)
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