On Joy and Sorrow

Sorry about the blog overload- I am near a computer and have lots of things I have been meaning to share. I've got a few more stories I am saving (i.e. cheese''burger'' misunderstanding, smashing my finger helping a woman carry her motorbike up the stairs at the train station), but I will not write them all now, becau0se I do not think that I can send more than 3 posts in a day without seeming desperate. Maybe I already passed the limit? Maybe.

However, this was neat and I wanted to share. I have made a wonderful friend here named Jani (short for Janez). We've had many a conversation about life... and I told him all about my favorite poem (On Joy and Sorrowby Kahlil Gibran) in English, before he realized that he had the same book in Slovene. Here it is, in Slovene:

O Veselju in Žalosti:
Nato mu poroče neka žena: Govori nam o Veselju in Žalosti.

In on je govoril:

Vaše veselje je vaša nezakrita žalost.
Isti vir, iz katerega se poraja vaš smeh, je bil mnogokrat napojen s solzami.
Je mar mogoče, da bi bilo drugače?
Kolikor globlje bo žalost presunila vaše bitje, toliko več veselja boste lahko zadržali.
Mar vašega vrča za vino ni žgal lončar v peči?
In lutnja, ki vam boža dušo, mar ni iz lesa, ki so ga izdolbli z noži?
Ko so veselite, poglejte globoko v svoje srce in spoznali boste, da vam prinaša veselje pravzaprav tisto, kar vam je zadalo bolest.
Ko se žalostite, si znova poglejte v srce in videli boste, da jočete za svojo slastjo.

Nekateri med vami pravijo: 'Veselje je večje od žalosti,' in drugi: 'Ne, žalost je večja.'
Jaz pa vam pravim, da sta neločjiva.
Skupaj prihajata in ko prvo samo prisede k vaši mizi, so spomnite, da druga spi v vaši postelji.

Kot tehtnica ste, razpeti med svojo žalost in svoje veselje.
Samo tedaj, ko sta vaši skodeli prazni, ste mirni in v ravnotežju.
Ko vas zakladničar vzdigne, da izmeri svoje zlato in srebro, bo vaša žalost ali vaše veselje poraslo ali padlo.


And I can sort of understand!
Well, 50%.