enough words

How does a part of the world leave the world?

How can wetness leave water?
Don't try to put out a fire by throwing on more fire!

Don't wash a wound with blood!
No matter how fast you run,your shadow more than keeps up.

Sometimes, it's in front!
Only full, overhead sundimishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you!

What hurts you, blesses you.

Darkness is your candle.

Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this,

but it would break the glass cover on your heart,

and there's no fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree, feathers and wings sprout on you,

be quieter than a dove.

Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.
When a frog slips into the water,

the snake cannot get it.

Then the frog climbs back outand croaks,

and the snake moves toward him again.
Even if the frog learned to hiss,

still the snake would hear through the hiss the information he needed,

the frog voice underneath.
But if the frog could be completely silent,

then the snake would go back to sleeping,and the frog could reach the barley.
The soul lives there in the silent breath.
And that grain of barley is such that,when you put it in the ground,it grows.
Are these enough words,

or shall I squeeze more juice from this?

Who am I, my friend

translated by Coleman Barks