Without experiencing loss
we can never understand kindness.

We must watch before our own eyes
as the future disappears,
as everything we have held tightly in our fists,
everything we have carefully counted and saved,
dissolves like salt
in water.

Only becoming lost
in the wasteland of burned dreams
will make us pilgrims
to the land of kindness.

But even before that,
we must experience in our hearts
the dark depth of grief.

We must wake with grief.
We must speak of grief
until our voices
take their colour
from the wandering threads
of sorrow.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Translation: Aydin Areta