Sunday, January 4, 2009

Another Thought On Heaven And Hell

Another Thought On Heaven And Hell

When I saw a Chinese painting of a couple like heavenly beings in a beautiful park with butterflies and flowers and warbling birds I thought that that was paradise or a heaven on earth as the painter saw it. Yet, I have another picture of heaven in my mind as I think of The Vagrant’s Song.*

I can imagine a far greater heaven, even in hell when a mother were with her children, and I thought of heaven as an oasis in a desert rather than a worse hell, suffering in heaven, seeing her children separated from her in hell.

I also saw photo’s of toddlers, cherubs in their happy children’s heaven, their fun, joy, ignorance, … so appealing to the eye and I thought, perhaps it would be even better, were it photo’s not of toddlers but of orangutan (literally: forest man), even of very old people in their paradise, though not so pleasing to the eye but appealing to the mind.

January 2009

* The Vagrant’s Song

A vagrant singing, carrying his precious cartload, a sleeping girl:

With you beside me,
Living, sleeping in my cart;
Right there’s my palace, my paradise.
With you beside me,
The richest man seems poor to me.

The girl is mumbling in her sleep:

With you beside me,
Am I honored as a queen of queens.
With you beside me,
Hell doesn’t terrify me,
Nor do I wish to go to heaven
Save with you.








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