"Psalm"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: And how can we talk of order overall
when the very placement of the stars
leaves us doubting just what shines for whom?Not to speak of the fog's reprehensible drifting!
And dust blowing all over the steppes
as if they hadn't been partitioned!
And the voices coasting on obliging airwaves,
that conspiratorial squeaking, those indecipherable mutters!
Only what is human can truly be foreign.
Der Spiegel (17 October 1988)
Source: The Beach (1941), Chapter 4, p. 25
“Oh great star! What would your happiness be if you did not have us to shine for?”
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“We all shine on… like the moon and the stars and the sun… we all shine on… come on and on and on…”
Variant: Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
Source: Song Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
“What makes night within us may leave stars.”
Variant: Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.
Source: Ninety-Three
“We all shine on in the moon and the stars and the sun.”
Source: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Variant: and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.
Source: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
“For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars?”
