Wind, Water, Stone

BY OCTAVIO PAZ

TRANSLATED BY ELIOT WEINBERGER

Water hollows stone,

wind scatters water,

stone stops the wind.

Water, wind, stone.

Wind carves stone,

stone’s a cup of water,

water escapes and is wind.

Stone, wind, water.

Wind sings in its whirling,

water murmurs going by,

unmoving stone keeps still.

Wind, water, stone.

Each is another and no other:

crossing and vanishing

through their empty names:

water, stone, wind.

In my exploration of water and stone, I also found this podcast from Vox about the origins of water on Earth very interesting. I see water and stone as related but opposing forces, each with the ability to shape the other. Both yin and yang. As I learned from Lydia Hallis, a planetary scientist at the University of Glasgow, there is a deeper connection between water and stone which can be uncovered by studying samples of the very oldest water on Earth.