О старости - Über das Alter

Ein Text, den ich schon lange kenne und immer wieder hören mag.

Weil er hier so wunderbar gelesen ist.

 

Man kann auch einfach nur die Bilder anschauen

und den fremden Klang auf sich wirken lassen.

Er stammt aus  "Das Buch des Mirdad" von Mikhail Naimy (1889-1988).

Hier ist er in deutsch mit drin, eingebettet in die Vorgeschichte,

aber das klingt längst nicht so schön, da vibriert nicht soviel in den Worten,

um es mit dem Meister direkt zu sagen...

Hörenswert natürlich auch.

About old age.

Old age is a burden for man and for the animal. But the people were doubly heavier than the indifferent heartlessness of her. When a young child is born, he is surrounded with caress and care. And everyone expresses to him to strive for his love. However, a man burdened for years, no one will remember, and rather reward him with disdain than caress. And just as they admire the growth of their offspring enthusiastically, they wish the grave to the Elder passionately.

Old men and children are equally helpless. And yet the helplessness of the child will awaken love unselfish, parents aspire to help him as they can. But not many people will offer help to the old man, but, helping, they will complain discontentedly, grumble and be angry with fate, wishing the old man a speedy death. In fact, the elderly are worthy of your care than infants.

When you have to knock a word for a long time, so that an ear can enter it, that once there was a whisper,

When shadows dance in the haze of the mist and outshine the eye, which used to be sharp,

When the lead weight becomes a foot that was previously winged, and the hands that made life, do not hold a straw,

When the knees tremble, and the head on the neck hangs, like a sheet of dry,

When the millstone was ground into powder itself, and the mill was quieted by a sullen cave,

When, when you get up, you are afraid to fall, you sit down with doubt: "Will I get up?",

When you eat and drink, fearing the consequences, and if you do not start eating and drinking, then you will invite Death to the threshold,

When old age comes to a man, my friends, then it's time for him to lend his eyes and ears, give him both hands and feet, to support his weakening powers with love, so that he feels that he is no less desired by this Life in the slope of his years than in Childhood fleeting.

And what is eighty years for eternity? Just inhale and exhale. But a man who has grown himself all eighty years is more than just breathing in and out. It will be a harvest for those who will reap life. And is there life that is not reaping?

Now you are reaping the fruits of those lives that men gave to the earth, women who lived and died before you. Your speech is nothing but the harvest of the speeches of others. Thoughts are just collections of old thoughts. All clothing and homes, all utensils, food and water, traditions, customs and laws are nothing more than

clothes, dwellings and food of all those who used to live.

And every second you own not just one thing, but you benefit from everything that was. You are sowers and fruits, reapers, fields, barn, where the harvest is stored. And if your harvest is poor, see the grains that you planted in the hearts of other people, the fruits reap the influence of them in yourself.

The old man, whose fruits you will reap and reap in the barn, is worthy of the utmost attention on your part. And if by indifference you poison the rest of his days, those years when you could collect a delicious harvest, then the fruits that you collected and the fruits that you can still collect will turn out to be rotten. Everything is the same with a dying animal.

It's wrong to cash in on the fruits and curse the one who raised them.

My friends, you are kind to people of any country, religion. They will guide you to the Lord. Especially closely watch the old people, or the evil is poisoned their fruits will be, and you will never reach the end.

Kindly you are to all animals of any age. They are, at least taciturn, helping during the gatherings to you in a long way. Especially closely watch you for the animals that grow old, so that your indifference, cruelty does not frighten off their devotion, and that their help does not become a hindrance to you.