Offering
I am earth. I lie beneath everything.
Everything is above me. Even the earth’s crust.
I am water. I am afraid of the stones I will strike as I flow.
I stop, for fear that the stone’s skin be scraped.
I am air. Wind curves inside me. Whereas I am invisible.
…
O reader! You? You are like this, too.
You may not know it yet:
You are just like me.
I must believe you. For there are no kindhearted gods!
This is why I am obliged to believe you.
You!
And that is why, though we may be water, earth, and air,
we appear as somebody among the crowds.
"Offering" from Book of the Edge by Ece Temelkuran, translated by Deniz Perin. Copyright
2010 © by Deniz Perrin. Reprinted with permission of BOA Editions.