Andrew Quernmore

On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying,
and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.

Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my
dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.

That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to
me that is was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.

I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this
perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.

– Rabindranath Tagore

The Moment by Samuel HaNagid (993-1056)

She said: “Rejoice

For God has brought you

to your fiftieth year in the world!”

But she had no inkling

That , for my part, there is no difference

Between my own days which have gone by

And the distant days of Noah

In the rumored past.

I have nothing in the world

But the hour in which I am.

It pauses for a moment, and then

Like a cloud

Moves on.