I was not aware of the moment 
when I first crossed the threshold of this life.

What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery 
like a bud in the forest at midnight!

When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment 
that I was no stranger in this world, 
that the inscrutable without name and form 
had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother.

Even so, in death the same unknown will appear 
as ever known to me. 
And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well.

The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away, 
in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.