Everyday, I look at you
but you only see yourself

Everyday, I look at you
I never see myself

It is only you that I see
It made the horizon cry
and weep in neglect

A tear fell creating havoc,
changing perspective—

Has it always been you
or the sky above you?

When will we ever see ourselves?

I saw my copy of The Alchemist and decided to reread it again. I was reminded of a story in it about Narcissus and the lake. It’s been years and I still think about this version. How come the lake didn’t see Narcissus’ beauty?

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected”

Does this mean that Narcissus only did see the lake and not himself? But then, I also thought, was it really the lake that he saw or was it the sky? The lake being just a reflection of it.

In that sense, it was the sky’s beauty that the lake saw in Narcissus’ eyes.

Are we just a reflection of something else that’s why we don’t really see ourselves?

「DISCLAIMER: featured image」

Published by enna

Enna is a highly caffeinated writer who spends more time overthinking than actually writing. She loves listening to music, binge-watch anything, and fangirl over BTS and 황인엽.

14 thoughts on “Poetry | Narcissus and the Lake”

  1. Beautiful.

    I wonder if it is because we’re all the same person… We are all reflections of each other and in that way we always see ourselves.

    We are one vast consciousness. Though I think when someone is close to realising that, before they incorporate everything, it can be easy to neglect their own human self.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Thank you, and you have given me new things to think about too. I’d also never thought of the possibility of the lake seeing itself in Narcissus as is said in the Alchemist. It feels like a balance sometimes of too much self and too little self. Your two depictions make a powerful combination.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  2. the alchemist. ♡ The sky never crossed my mind, (wow. oo nga) but what if?? they’re both gazing at the sky’s beauty, then.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

spill your thoughts...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.