Thursday, February 4, 2016

Wolfram’s Valentine

There’s a magical fairy-tale quality
to his Parzival  behind which
we can find historical analogues
but Wolfram is giving us the soul’s
story not the physical history
in which evil is merely ignorance
of the soul’s origins in divinity
part of the suffering of the hero
entails having to fit himself into
patterns he himself had allowed
for others he had to lower himself
without falling into the kind of pact
with the devil others had struck
as the price of their freedom
since evil is the way we pay
for our freedom inasmuch as
real freedom must include it
and only thereby can love
come into the world it being the only
thing wise and powerful enough
to bring evil freely back to good

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