Quotes from Walt Whitman

I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the Soul, The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me

Death and immortality were but two aspects of the same blessed hope to this man, who poured out his life in a turgid fount of ecstatic joy in living:

Whatever may have been the case in years gone by, the true use for the imaginative faculty of modern times is to give ultimate vivification to facts, to science, and to common lives, endowing them with the glows and glories and final illustriousness which belong to every real thing, and to real things only. Without that ultimate vivification—which the poet or other artist alone can give—reality would seem incomplete, and science, democracy, and life itself, finally in vain.

Te vagy az, akit gyakran és csendben fölkeresek, hogy veled lehessek, Amikor veled sétálok, vagy melletted ülök, vagy együtt maradok veled ugyanabban a szobában, Keveset tudsz arról a finom, elektromos t?zrÅ'l, ami a te kedvedért játszik bennem.

If you are a student, be also a student of the body ... realizing that a broad chest, a muscular pair of arms, and two sinewy legs, will be just as much credit to you, and stand you in hand through your future life, equally with your geometry, your history, your classics, your law, medicine, or divinity. Let nothing divert you from your duty to your body

Tutta la teoria dell'universo si rivolge immancabilmente a un unico individuo - ossia a Te

Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward annihilation?

Olykor aziránt is, akit szeretek, haraggal telek el, mert félek, hogy nem viszonozza áradó szerelmem, De már úgy hiszem, nincs többé viszonzatlan szerelem, így, vagy amúgy megtérül, (Valamikor lángolón szerettem valakit, és nem viszonozta szerelmem, EbbÅ'l Írtam mégis e dalokat.)

Let me sing to you now, about how people turn into other things from Leaves of Grass

Here I sit gossiping in the early candle-light of old age—and my book—casting backward glances over our travel'd road.

That you are here - that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Do you suspect death? If I were to suspect death I should die now

Én vagyok az, akinek fáj a szerelmes szerelem; Vonz a föld? Nem fájva vonz-e minden anyag minden anyagot? Az én testem is így van mindennel, ami útjába kerül, vagy amit megismer.

TO THE EAST AND TO THE WEST. To the East and to the West, To the man of the Seaside State and of Pennsylvania, To the Kanadian of the north, to the Southerner I love, These with perfect trust to depict you as myself, the germs are in all men, I believe the main purport of these States is to found a superb friendship, exaltè, previously unknown, Because I perceive it waits, and has been always waiting, latent in all men.

Te, olvasó: az élet, a dicsÅ'ség, a szerelem lázában égsz, mint én, Legyenek tehát a tiéid e dalok.

Amikor mellém érsz, idegen, és beszélni kívánsz velem, miért ne beszélnél velem? És miért ne beszélnék veled én?

And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles.

O while I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave, To meet life as a powerful conqueror... And nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.

Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome? Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all, I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Night, sleep, death and the stars.

Sem munkát-megtakarító gépet nem alkottam, Sem felfedezésem nincsen, Sem gazdag örökséget nem hagyok kórház, vagy könyvtár alapítására, Sem bátor tettek emlékét Amerika szolgálatában, Sem szellemi, sem irodalmi sikert, sem könyvet a könyves-polc számára, Csupán a levegÅ'ben hullámzó néhány dalom marad itt, Társaknak és szerelmeseknek.

I lean and loafe at my ease...observing a spear of summer grass.

Of all nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and use them the greatest. Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.

Listen! I will be honest with you, I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes