“The land knows you, even when you are lost.”
Even if you speak with many learned words,
but know not the land.
You are just a homeless noise maker.
Perhaps you know the secrets of the future,
Or understand the mysteries of science.
You may know the hymns of man’s religions;
but if you know not the land;
you are short of knowing anything.
You may give all that you have,
but if you give for your own self
and you know not to give to the land.
You give for nothing.
The land is a patient place,
The land is a kind retreat.
It does not envy anything,
it does not boast of itself,
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
is not self-seeking,
is not even angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
The Land does not know there are evils.
But it knows you.
It always protects,
always inspires trust,
always instills hope,
always perseveres for its own.
The land never fails.
But where there are people,
They will fail.
Where there is human pride,
there will be a return to earth learned humility.
We only know in part—
but the land knows us in full.
There are these— three:
the sea, the sky, and the land,
but the most giving of these is the land.