Intermezzo
Anyone
Can say anything.
Eyes look without obstruction,
And the nose, it sniffs everything.
Legs go where they want to. Hands reach.
The mind respects nothing. Even the heart is unsure
Where to stand. This is how things are.
Is something missing?
A human being can walk in different ways,
Deliberately, as though going somewhere,
Or strolling with no purpose, or marching,
Or limping, or pretending to be a gorilla
With arms hanging down.
He or she can curse you or trust you, comfort you,
Or act without considering anything or anyone.
Truth and lies, both glitter in the eyes.
He or she can hear and enjoy and embrace
The language coming in, but to understand everything
With divine wisdom is hard.
There is one clear truth, the pure loving.
When people do not have that, they are disconnected.
Words are just words,
And good actions are done for wrong reasons.
Paint on a red dot like the dancing Shiva,
But if you don’t know how to open your heart
With modesty, dignity, and respect for others,
It’s just collecting more honors and robes.
It’s easy to explain the condition of being human,
What’s missing and what’s here,
But if you don’t know God exists,
It’s foolishness. To know this and
Act accordingly is difficult.
Saying the words is easy.
Robert Nesta Marley, February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981
Born fatherless,
never knew my father. My mother
worked. She didn’t have no way of keeping me
going to school. We don’t have education, we have
inspiration. If I was educated,
I would be a damn
fool.
Me don’t have
no prejudice about myself.
Why me don’t have no prejudice about myself?
My father was white, my mother black. You know, dem call me
half-caste, or whatever. Well, me don’t be upon nobody’s side. Me don’t
be upon black mon’s side nor white man’s side but upon
God’s side, de mon who create me, who
cause me to come from black
and white.
Reggae music
is the the people’s music,
reggae music is news. It’s news about
your own self, your own history, things that they
wouldn’t teach you in a school. Reggae music is a music created
by Rasta people. And it carry earth force, a people rhythm,
earth people. You know, there’s a rhythm of
people working, people
moving.
Dreads of
the world suffer.
Masses of the people suffer.
And dis music come from
the masses of the
people.
Why one
race want to be rich and
the other one poor? Why one want
to fight on the other? It’s no more of that.
The youth of today say no,
that cannot work
no more.
How long
have I been a Rastafarian?
I am a Rastamon, you know, I stand Rasta.
To say how long is like, again, I say, from Creation, if you
can overstand it that way. Because y’all like to say
15 years, 10 years, it’s not really so.
It’s from Creation.
The only law
which is law is the law of life,
the law of how to live. Me don’t want to get involved
in talking like me is a politician. Me just want to
talk about righteousness. Jah is
Earth’s rightful ruler.
I don’t come
to bow, you know, I come to conquer.
I don’t come to bow, I come
to conquer.
My home is
always where I am. My home is
in my head. My home is what I think about,
how I try to settle my mind. That is my home.
My home is not in the material
world but there.
I don’t really
have no ambition, you know.
I only have one thing I’d really like to see happen.
I’d like to see mankind live together — black, white, shiny,
anyone, you know what I mean?
That’s all.
We are revolutionaries.
Me see myself as a revolutionary, who don’t have
no help, nor take no bribe from no one, but
fight it single handed, with
music.
My life is
important to me, but all
people life is important. My life is only
important if me can help plenty people. If my life is
just for me, my own security, then me no
want it. My life is for people. That’s
the way me is.
I say to
the people that they
have a voice inside of them that
talk to them, you know. That is the voice that
people must listen to. Because in everything that you go
and do, there is a wrong way and a right way. And if
you listen good, you will know the right way.
You know? Because there is a voice
inside talkin’ to everyone.
Seen? Seen.
