“Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes?”

— Pablo Neruda

Last update Oct. 12, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes?" by Pablo Neruda?

Pablo Neruda 136

Chilean poet 1904–1973

Erin Hunter

Source: Sunset

“Yet if we wait, unafraid, beyond the fearful instant,
The burning lake turns into a forest pool,
The fire subsides into rings of water,
A sunlit silence.”

Theodore Roethke book The Far Field

"The Abyss"
The Far Field (1964)
Context: A terrible violence of creation,
A flash into the burning heart of the abominable;
Yet if we wait, unafraid, beyond the fearful instant,
The burning lake turns into a forest pool,
The fire subsides into rings of water,
A sunlit silence.

“The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

A Handful of Sand on the Shore

“All wars are civil ones; for it is still man spilling his own blood, tearing out his own bowels.”

François Fénelon (1651–1715) Catholic bishop

Toutes les guerres sont civiles; car c'est toujours l'homme contre l'homme qui répand son propre sang, qui déchire ses propres entrailles.
Dialogues des morts, ch. 17, cited from De l'éducation des filles, Dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 149; translation from Mr. Elphingston (trans.) Dialogues of the Dead, Together with Some Fable Composed for the Education of a Prince (Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1754) vol. 1, p. 87. (1700).

“Don’t move. I like this ledge of loose diamonds
waiting to be spilled into the night.
Let’s shine awhile without touching.
Sensuality is, after all, a river that is always waiting.”

Tess Gallagher (1943) American writer

Source: Moon Crossing Bridge

“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Longfellow's translation of Friedrich von Logau, "Retribution", Sinngedichte III, 2, 24. http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2002/05/21/452.html.

“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.”

Friedrich von Logau (1605–1655) German poet

Retribution. (Sinngedichte III, 2, 24, published c. 1654, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). Compare: "God's mill grinds slow, but sure", George Herbert. Jacula Prudentum. Sextus Empiricus is the first writer who has presented the whole of the adage cited by Plutarch in his treatise "Concerning such whom God is slow to punish".