Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Please Call Me By My True Names... Don't say that I will depart tomorrow... Even today I am still arriving... Look deeply: Every second I am arriving... ....to be a bud on a spring branch To be a tiny bird with still fragile wings... ...learning to sing in my new nest To be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower... To be a jewel hiding itself in a stone... I still arrive in order to laugh... ...and to cry... ...to fear.... ...and to hope.... The rhythm of my heart... ...is the birth... ...and death... ...of all that is alive... I am a mayfly... ...metamorphosing on the surface of the river And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly... I am the frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond... ...and I am the grass snake that silently feeds itself on the frog I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks... ...and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda... I am the twelve year old girl, refugee on a small boat... ...who throws herself in the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable... ...of seeing... ...and loving... I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable... I am a member of the politburo with plenty of power in my hands... ...and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people, dying slowly in a forced labor camp My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the earth... My pain is like a river of tears... ...so vast it fills the four oceans... Please call me by my true names, so I can hear... ...all my cries... ...and laughter at once... ...so I see my joy... ...and pain... ...are one Please call me by my true names so I can wake up... ...and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion... Thich Nhat Hanh
B1 pirate uganda frog arriving call bird Please Call Me By My True Names - A Poem By Thich Nhat Hanh 69 7 Metta Hsu posted on 2015/05/02 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary