Octavian Paler – Romanian writer

I remember reading his books as a young teenager (and as an old one too :)); trying to understand his philosophy, looking for deeper meaning in each word he used and when I received the bad news that he passed away this month (May 7 2007) and I started getting emails with “his last interview”, “his last article” … I remembered this poem, I totally forgot about it for a long time. I recall those days when I was trying to understand the “I learned…” part and probably being young and without much life experience I did not understand it :)
Because I did not find any translation of this poem I decided to translate it for you, my friends. Enjoy.

I learned by Octavian Paler

We have time ...
We have time for everything
To sleep, or to be all over the place,
To regret mistakes and do them again,
To judge others and find excuses for ourselves,

We have time to read and write,
To correct our writings, and regret what we wrote,
We have time to make plans and never complete them,
We have time to fantasize about impossible things
and later on to look into the ashes of them.

We have time for ambitions and diseases,
To blame fate and the details,
We have time to watch the clouds, TV commercials and shocking news,
We have time to not answer questions,
To postpone the answers,
We have time to kill a dream and recreate it later
We have time to make friends, and lose them
We have time to get lessons and forget them later on,
We have time to get gifts and not understand them.
We have time for everything.

But we don’t have time for a little kindness.
When one does they are dying.

I learned some important things in my life and I would like to share them with you.
I learned that you can not make somebody love you
All you can do is to be a lovely person
the rest … depends on others.
I learned that it does not matter how much I care
others don’t.
I learned that it takes years to win somebody’s trust
and it takes just a few seconds to lose it.
I learned that doesn’t matter what you HAVE in life
all that matters is with WHOM you have it
I learned that in the first 15 min you can impress somebody by using your charm
after that you have to come up with something smart.
I learned that you don’t have to compare yourself with what other people are best at
you have to find out what is your best
I learned that it does not matter what happens to people
what matters is what I can do to help.

I learned that each episode has two faces
I learned you should part lovingly from those you love
It may be the last time you have the opportunity to see that person


I learned that you can run a long time after you said that you are exhausted
I learned that heroes are people who do the right thing
when it is needed
not caring about the consequences

I learned that there are people that love you
but they do not know how to show it
I learned that when I am upset I have the right to be upset
but I do not have the right to be mean

I learned that you can have long distance friendships
the same applies to love
I learned that if somebody does not love you like you wish
It does not mean he or she does not love you from the bottom of their heart
He or she will occasionally hurt you
And you will forgive it.

I learned that it is not enough to forgive others
sometimes you have to forgive yourself
I learned that regardless how much you are suffering
the world will not stop
I learned that your past can have an impact on your personality
but you are responsible for what you are going to become
I learned that, if two people get into a fight

it does not mean they do not love each other
And the fact that they do not fight does not mean they love each other.
I learned that sometimes you have to put the person first and not their actions
I learned that two people can see different sides of the same incident
I learned that indifferent of the consequences
those who are honest with themselves are the winners in life
I learned that your life can be changed by strangers in a few hours.
I learned that when you think you have nothing to give
your friend can call for help, and you will find the strength to help him

I learned that talking and writing can help to heal your pain.
I learned that you spend too little time with people you love the most…

I learned that is very hard to know when to be nice
so you do not hurt people but you still sustain your opinions

I learned to love so I can be loved in return