In Praise of Wisdom

1. From Eternity

Children: Who lights the sun? Who sends the darkness? Who fixes the stars in the sky? Who can count the raindrops? Who can count the sands of the sea? Who can count the days of Eternity?

(Karin Rehnqvist)

I was set up everlasting,

from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains abounding with water.

(Proverbs 8:23–24)

2. The Geometer

Children: Who gave birth to the dew drops? Who gave life to the hoar frost of Heaven? Who can see the depths of infinity? How large is space? How high is the sky? Does the infinite never end?

(Karin Rehnqvist).

Choir: I lean out from my cherry leaf

and peer towards eternity:

eternity is far too big today

far too blue and thousand-leagued

I think I'll stay on my cherry leaf

and take the measurements of my green cherry leaf

(Werner Aspenström)

3. One brother more

Children: What is love? Who is poor? Who am I? What is a human being?

Choir: Human, humanity, human figure, human body, human voice, human life, human child, human dignity ...

(Karin Rehnqvist)

You cannot remake the world

Calm your turbulent spirit

There is only one thing you can do:

good to another.

But this in itself is so much

that the very stars will smile.

One hungry person less

means one brother more.

(Stig Dagerman)

hungering, thirsting, sleeping, loving ...

4. Night will not come

Children: Why do people have to sleep at night? Who decides on earth? Who says that the truth is always right? Who knows what is right or wrong? Why can people get ill? Why do people have to die and where do they go then? Why do people have to die?

(Karin Rehnqvist)

Night will not come

though the eye is not blinded.

Night will not come

in the grove of tall cedars,

were the dead sleep

side by side

like grey infants

in the moment of their waiting.

For other lamps

hang there in the trees

and bring out plants

of a different glow,

and the butterfly, flown

from grey swaddling clothes,

can drink winds there

that did not blow on earth

that did not come

though the eye is not blinded.

Night did not come

– only the sun vanished

(Werner Aspenström)