What Riddle Asked the Sphinx: To the Memory of André Gide
IN my stone eyes I see
The saint upon his knee
Dig in the desert for eternity.
The saint upon his knee
Dig in the desert for eternity.
In my stone ears I hear
The night-lost traveller
Cry When? to the earth’s shadow: When? O where?
The night-lost traveller
Cry When? to the earth’s shadow: When? O where?
Stone deaf and blind
I ponder in my mind
The bone that seeks, the flesh that cannot find.
I ponder in my mind
The bone that seeks, the flesh that cannot find.
Stone blind I see
The saint’s eternity
Deep in the earth he digs in. Cannot he?
The saint’s eternity
Deep in the earth he digs in. Cannot he?
Stone deaf I hear
The night say Then! say There!
Why cries that traveller still to the night air?
The night say Then! say There!
Why cries that traveller still to the night air?
The one is not content
With silence, the day spent;
With earth the other. More, they think, was meant.
With silence, the day spent;
With earth the other. More, they think, was meant.
Stone that I am, can stone
Perceive what flesh and bone
Are blind and deaf to?
Perceive what flesh and bone
Are blind and deaf to?
Or has hermit known,
Has traveller divined,
Some question there behind
I cannot come to, being stone and blind ?
Has traveller divined,
Some question there behind
I cannot come to, being stone and blind ?
To all who ken or can
I ask, since time began,
What riddle is it has for answer, Man?
I ask, since time began,
What riddle is it has for answer, Man?
ARCHIBALD MACLEISH