Definition of a Soul:
1. breath
the breath of life: the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing
2. of animals and of men
life that in which there is life ––a living being, a living soul
3. The soul the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions
The soul is regarded as a moral being designed for everlasting life. The soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death
A Few Words on the Soul
by Wislawa Szymborska
We have a soul at times
No one’s got it non-stop,
for keeps.
Day after day,
year after year
may pass without it.Sometimes
it will settle for a
while only in childhood’s fears and raptures.
Sometimes only in astonishment
that we are old.It rarely lends a hand
in uphill tasks,
like moving furniture,
or lifting luggage,
or going miles in shoes that pinch.It usually steps out
whenever meat needs chopping
or forms have to be filled.For every thousand conversations
it participates in one,
if even that,
since it prefers silence.Just when our body goes from ache to pain,
it slips off-duty.It’s picky:
it doesn’t like seeing us in crowds,
our hustling for a dubious advantage
and creaky machinations make it sick.
Joy and sorrow
aren’t two different feelings for it.
It attends us
only when the two are joined.We can count on it
when we’re sure of nothing
and curious about everything.Among the material objects
it favors clocks with pendulums
and mirrors, which keep on working
even when no one is looking.It won’t say where it comes from
or when it’s taking off again,
though it’s clearly expecting such questions.We need it but apparently
it needs us
for some reason too.translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
