For whom the bells toll - Tsunami, 26 December, 2004
"No man is an island,
entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
of thine own were:
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know
for whom the bells tolls;
it tolls for thee."
John Donne
Devotions upon
Emergent Occasions, no. 17
(Meditation)
1624 (published)
This poem by Jhon Donne has been ringing in my ears since yesterday when I heard the news that a tsunami had struck the South East Asia and the Sub Continent, leaving a trail of destruction. Tsunami - I had never heard about it before, is derived from the Japanese language and is used by Japanese to describe very long, low seismic sea waves. To know more about tsunami
Difficult as they are to write, I want to convey my deepest and heartfelt condolances to all