Chapter 6November 23, 1966

Strange.

* * * A few lines below, Mother hesitates between two translations:

And earth [shall] grow unexpectedly divine.

It’s again the quality of the vibration: sans s’y attendre ["without expecting it"] is fuller – it’s fuller, more golden. The other, d’une façon inattendue ["in an unexpected way"] is a bit cold and dry.

"Et sans s’y attendre, la Terre deviendra divine..."

After reading an excerpt from the debate with Death:

If God there is he cares not for the world; All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze, He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire, He has bound all life with his implacable laws; He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer. Eternal while the ages toil beneath, Unmoved, untouched by aught that he has made, He sees as minute details mid the stars The animals’s agony and the fate of man: Immeasurably wise, he exceeds thy thought; His solitary joy needs not thy love.

(X.IV.646)

Yes, but we need his joy.

All this was said to me this morning. Absolutely the same thing (with different words, but the very