Novelis: Paulo Coelho
Penerjemah: Alan R. Clarke
Part One
“Well, usually I learn more from my sheep than from books.”
“They trust me, and they’ve forgotten how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to nourishment.”
“We have to be prepared for change.”
“He had wanted to know the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing God and learning about man’s sins.”
“I couldn’t have found God in the seminary.”
“The problem is that they don’t even
realize that they’re walking a new road every day. They don’t see that
the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food
and water.”
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
“Dreams are the language of God … if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand.”
“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none
about his or her own.”
about his or her own.”
What’s the world’s greatest lie?
“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of
what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s
the world’s greatest lie.”
“Everyone, when they are young,
knows what their destiny is … But, as time passes, a mysterious force
begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize
their destiny.”
“There is one great truth on this planet:
whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want
something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the
universe. It’s your mission on earth.”
“To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one.”
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“If you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.”
“Everything in life has its price. This is what the Warriors of the Light try to teach.”
“When each day is the same as the next,
it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in
their lives every day that the sun rises.”
“It’s called the principle of favorability. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner’s luck.”
“Don’t forget that everything you deal
with is only one thing and nothing else. And don’t forget the language
of omens. And, above all, don’t forget to follow your destiny through to
its conclusion.”
“You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house.”
“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”
“In money there was magic; whoever has money is never really alone.”
“When you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favor.”
“I’m like everyone else—I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.”
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one.”
“I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.”
“There must be a language that doesn’t
depend on words … If I can learn to understand this language without
words, I can learn to understand the world.”
“All things are one.”
Part Two
“It’s called the principle of favorability, beginner’s luck. Because life wants you to achieve your destiny.”
“Not everyone can see his dreams come true in the same way.”
“Beauty is the great seducer of men.”
“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”
“Sometimes, there’s just no way to hold back the river.”
“Never stop dreaming. Follow the omens …
It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and
purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.”
“When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it.”
“Making a decision was only the beginning
of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a
strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of
when he first made the decision.”
“Everything in life is an omen.”
“The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy.”
“Creatures like the sheep, that are used to traveling, know about moving on.”
“Intuition is really a sudden immersion
of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of
all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because
it’s all written there … Maktub.”
“No matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved toward the same compass point.”
“People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.”
“We are afraid of losing what we have …
But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and
the history of the world were written by the same hand.”
“That’s the principle that governs all
things. In alchemy, it’s called the Soul of the World. When you want
something with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul
of the World. It’s always a positive force.”
“Everything on earth is being
continuously transformed, because the earth is alive … and it has a
soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is
working for us.”
“The caravan and the desert speak the same language, and it’s for that reason that the desert allows the crossing.”
“All things are the manifestation of one thing only.”
“Alchemy could be learned in one’s daily life.”
“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.”
“His way isn’t the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we’re both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that.”
“If you can concentrate always on the
present, you’ll be a happy man … Life will be a party for you, a grand
festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”
“The world speaks many languages.”
“Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees.”
“God revealed his secrets easily to all
his creatures … Because people become fascinated with pictures and
words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.”
“In his pursuit of the dream, he was
being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So
he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively,
he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.”
“Don’t be impatient … Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it’s time to move along.”
“The language that everyone on earth was
capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older
than humanity, more ancient than the desert.”
“When two such people encounter each
other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant.
There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything
under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that
evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world.
Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning … Maktub.“
“He knew that his love for her would enable him to discover every treasure in the world.”
“It’s not a battle of good against evil.
It’s a war between forces that are fighting for the balance of power,
and, when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than
others—because Allah is on both sides.”
“Maktub … If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll come back one day.”
“I’m a desert woman, and I’m proud of that. I want my husband to wander as free as the wind that shapes the dunes.”
“It was my fear of failure that first
kept me from attempting the Master Work. Now, I’m beginning what I could
have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait
twenty years.”
“When you are in love, things make even more sense.”
“Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”
“Whoever believes in dreams also knows how to interpret them.”
“To die tomorrow was no worse than dying
on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark
one’s departure from this world. Everything depended on one word: Maktub.“
“When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to
realize his dream.”
“It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”
“Wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”
“Life attracts life.”
“You must understand that love never
keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s
because it wasn’t true love… the love that speaks the Language of the
World.”
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
“I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”
“If what one finds is made of pure
matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you
had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star,
you would find nothing on your return.”
“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.”
“They were looking only for gold. They
were seeking the treasure of their destiny, without wanting actually to
live out the destiny.”
“All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.”
“Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there.”
“Wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”
“Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”
“You will never be able to escape from
your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way,
you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”
“People are afraid to pursue their most
important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or
that they’ll be unable to achieve them.”
“The fear of suffering is worse than the
suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in
search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s
encounter with God and with eternity.”
“All people who are happy have God within them … Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him.”
“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”
“The darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.”
“When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”
“No one fails to suffer the consequences of everything under the sun.”
“Your eyes show the strength of your soul.”
“When something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.”
“Anyone who interferes with the destiny of another thing never will discover his own.”
“You can’t offer me something that is already mine.”
“It’s not often that money saves a person’s life.”
“If a person is living out his destiny,
he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes
a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“The world is only the visible aspect of
God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into
contact with the material plane.”
“I learned the alchemist’s secrets in my
travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars,
and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same
hand, and we have the same soul.”
“When you are loved, you can do anything
in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand
what’s happening, because everything happens within you, and even men
can turn themselves into the wind. As long as the wind helps,
of course.”
“If you know about love, you must also know about the Soul of the World, because it’s made of love.”
The sun: “From where I am —and I’m a long
way from the earth— I learned how to love. I know that if I came even a
little bit closer to the earth, everything there would die, and the
Soul of the World would no longer exist. So we contemplate each other,
and we want each other, and I give it life and warmth, and it gives me
my reason for living.”
The boy: “You are wise, because you
observe everything from a distance. But you don’t know about love. If
there hadn’t been a sixth day, man would not exist; copper would always
be just copper, and lead just lead. It’s true that everything has its
destiny, but one day that destiny will be realized. So each thing has to
transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new destiny,
until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.”
“That’s what alchemists do. They show
that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us
becomes better, too.”
“He saw that omens were scattered
throughout the earth and in space, and that there was no reason or
significance attached to their appearance; he could see that not the
deserts, nor the winds, nor the sun, nor people knew why they had been
created. But that the hand had a reason for all of this, and that only
the hand could perform miracles, or transform the sea into a desert… or
a man into the wind. Because only the hand understood that it was a
larger design that had moved the universe to the point at which six days
of creation had evolved into a Master Work … The boy reached through to
the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God.
And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy,
could perform miracles.”
This payment goes well beyond my generosity. “Don’t say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time.”
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
“My Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed.”
“No matter what he does, every person on
earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he
doesn’t know it.”
“Love would never keep a man from his destiny.”
“No project is completed until its objective has been achieved.”
Epilogue
“I’m coming, Fatima.”
