Aug 21, 2017

A Philosopher’s Agony

I Read the Ptah-Hotep,
I Read the Obsolete Rig-Veda

Augusto dos Anjos

The Sahara Desert



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Editorial Note:

Brazilian poet Augusto dos Anjos
lived between 1884 and 1914. He had a
hard, difficult and brief incarnation, and
left a number of extraordinary poems.
Although many of them are pessimistic, 
Theosophy is not hard to find in his verses.

(CCA)

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I read the Ptah-hotep [1], I read the obsolete
Rig-Veda. Yet nothing gives me rest…
The Unconscious haunts me and I swirl possessed,
Restless harmattan [2] in aeolian rage!

I’m witness here to an insect’s death! …
Alas! Now all phenomena of earth
From pole to pole seem to make real
Anaximander of Miletus’ ideal!

Atop the heterogeneous hieratic areopagus
Of Ideas I wander, a lost magus,
From Haeckel’s soul to souls of Cenobites!..

The thick veiling of secret worlds I tear;
And just like Goethe, I catch the sight
Of universal substance ruling there!

NOTES:

[1] “The Maxims of Ptah-hotep” is an ancient Egyptian scripture which teaches wisdom. (CCA)

[2] Harmattan: a dry wind from the Sahara Desert. (CCA)

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The above poem was translated into English by Odile Cisneros. It is also published at the July 2016 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, p. 13. See its original version in Portuguese language in the volume “Augusto dos Anjos, Obra Completa”, Ed. Nova Aguilar, Rio de Janeiro, 2004, 884 pp., p. 201. Original title: “Agonia de um Filósofo”.

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