The Weighing by Jane Hirshfield

The Weighing
by Jane Hirshfield

The heart’s reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.

As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.

So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.

The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.

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The Weighing is from The October Palace (1994), Hirshfield's third book. I’ve been long fascinated with scales and weights and the idea of makeweights, so few grains and still the scales balance. Forgiveness in this poem is transformation, not exoneration, and giving happens here, not from our reserves, but through our willingness even when our reserves are gone. (I name this with both having been there, and also holding the tension between doing what needs doing, and trying to pay attention to my own ongoing resilience.) I think she speaks so well to what it actually feels like to live a long life of difficulty and continuing to show up.