3 – Of the Soul

(Found Poem in Michel de Montainge’s “Of Solitude” translated by George B. Ives)

Our sickness is of the soul;
now the soul can not escape from itself.

We have a soul that can be turned to itself;
it can be its own company;
it has the means of attack and of defence,
of giving and of receiving.

Let us not fear the becoming dull
in this solitude from wearisome inactivity;
in lonely places be to yourself a multitude.

The greatest thing in the world
is to know how to belong to oneself.