Since It Must Be So

Keith Jarrett: The Night We Called It A Day

For Sayonara,
literally translated,
Since it must be so,
of all the goodbyes
I have heard
is the most beautiful.
Unlike the Auf Wiedershens
and Au revoirs,
it does not try
to cheat itself
by any bravado
Till we meet again,
any sedative to postpone
the pain of separation.
It does not evade
the issue like
the sturdy blinking Farewell.
Farewell is a father's good-by.
It is---Go out in the world
and do well, my son.

It is encouragement
and admonition.
It is hope and faith.
But it passes over
the significance
of the moment;
of parting it says nothing.
It hides its emotion.
It says too little.
While Goodbye
(God be with you)
and Adios say too much.
They try to bridge the distance,
almost to deny it.
Goodbye is a prayer,
a ringing cry.
You must not go -
I cannot bear
to have you go!

But you shall not
go alone, unwatched.
God will be with you.
God's hand will be over you
and even--underneath,
hidden, but it is there,
incorrigible -
I will be with you;
I will watch you - always.
It is a mother's good-by.
But Sayonara says neither
too much nor too little.
It is a simple
acceptance of fact.
All understanding of life
lies in its limits.
All emotion, smoldering,
is banked up behind it.
But it says nothing.
It is really the unspoken good-by,
the pressure of a hand,
Sayonara.

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
North to the Orient

Milt Jackson / John Coltrane: The Night We Called It A Day