Vägmärken
Encyclopedia
Vägmärken is the only book of former UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld
, which was published in 1963. It is highly regarded as a classic of contemporary spiritual literature.
and the first dozen pages of his translation into Swedish...Beside the bed was the cherished copy of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ
which was always on the table of his New York
apartment next to his bed where the manuscript of Markings was found."
Many of the entries in Markings describe Hammarskjold's struggles to view his professional duty as a spiritual responsibility. The entry on June 11, 1961, for example, reads: "Summoned/To carry it,/Aloned/To assay it,/Chosen/To suffer it,/And free/To deny it,/I saw/For one moment/The sail/In the sun-storm,/Far off/On a wave-crest,/Alone,/Bearing from land./For one moment/I saw."
Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in Africa near midnight on September 17–18, 1961. The last entry of Markings is dated 24 August 1961: "Is it a new country/In another world of reality/Than Day's?/Or did I live there/Before Day was?/ I awoke/To an ordinary morning with grey light/Reflected from the street,/But still remembered/The dark-blue night/Above the tree line,/The open moor in moonlight,/The crest in shadow,/Remembered other dreams/Of the same mountain country:/Twice I stood on its summits,/I stayed by its remotest lake,/And followed the river/Towards its source./The seasons have changed/And the light/And the weather/And the hour./But it is the same land./And I begin to know the map/And to get my bearings."
and order." He notes that "among the approximately six hundred 'Road Marks' staked down along the "Way' of Dag Hammarskjold's pilgrimage, almost exactly a hundred are concerned in greater or lesser measure with God."
Hammarskjöld writes, for example, "We are not permitted to chose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it—according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed—according to the measure of his purity of heart."
The entry of 4 August 1959 reads: "To have humility is to experience reality, not in relation to ourselves, but in its sacred independence. It is to see, judge, and act from the point of rest in ourselves. Then, how much disappears, and all that remains falls into place. In the point of rest at the centre of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud, a revelation, each man a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable."
poetry in a manner exemplified by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho
in his Narrow Roads to the Deep North. Representative examples include:
The Easter-lily's dew-wet calyx.
Drops pausing
Between earth and sky.
They laid the blame on him.
He didn't know what it was,
But he confessed it.
Trees quiver in the wind,
Sailing on a sea of mist
Out of earshot.
In his foreword to Markings, the English poet W. H. Auden
states: "Markings, however, was not intended to be read simply as a work of literature. It is also an historical document of the first importance as an account—and I cannot myself recall another—of the attempt by a professional man of action to unite in one life the Via Activa and the Via Contemplativa." Auden quotes Hammarskjöld as stating "In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action."
Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
, which was published in 1963. It is highly regarded as a classic of contemporary spiritual literature.
Personal significance
A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends at his death in 1961. The manuscript for the book was found in his New York lodgings after Hammarskjold's death in the Congo. As van Dusen writes: "His last night had been spent in the residency of Sture Linner, head of the United Nations mission to the Congo. He left there the copy of the German original of Ich und Du (I and Thou) presented to him by Martin BuberMartin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
and the first dozen pages of his translation into Swedish...Beside the bed was the cherished copy of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
In Christian theology, the Imitation of Christ is the practice of following the example of Jesus. In Eastern Christianity the term Life in Christ is sometimes used for the same concept....
which was always on the table of his New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
apartment next to his bed where the manuscript of Markings was found."
Many of the entries in Markings describe Hammarskjold's struggles to view his professional duty as a spiritual responsibility. The entry on June 11, 1961, for example, reads: "Summoned/To carry it,/Aloned/To assay it,/Chosen/To suffer it,/And free/To deny it,/I saw/For one moment/The sail/In the sun-storm,/Far off/On a wave-crest,/Alone,/Bearing from land./For one moment/I saw."
Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in Africa near midnight on September 17–18, 1961. The last entry of Markings is dated 24 August 1961: "Is it a new country/In another world of reality/Than Day's?/Or did I live there/Before Day was?/ I awoke/To an ordinary morning with grey light/Reflected from the street,/But still remembered/The dark-blue night/Above the tree line,/The open moor in moonlight,/The crest in shadow,/Remembered other dreams/Of the same mountain country:/Twice I stood on its summits,/I stayed by its remotest lake,/And followed the river/Towards its source./The seasons have changed/And the light/And the weather/And the hour./But it is the same land./And I begin to know the map/And to get my bearings."
Spiritual significance
Markings was described by the late theologian Henry P. Van Dusen as "the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peaceWorld peace
World Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...
and order." He notes that "among the approximately six hundred 'Road Marks' staked down along the "Way' of Dag Hammarskjold's pilgrimage, almost exactly a hundred are concerned in greater or lesser measure with God."
Hammarskjöld writes, for example, "We are not permitted to chose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it—according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed—according to the measure of his purity of heart."
The entry of 4 August 1959 reads: "To have humility is to experience reality, not in relation to ourselves, but in its sacred independence. It is to see, judge, and act from the point of rest in ourselves. Then, how much disappears, and all that remains falls into place. In the point of rest at the centre of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud, a revelation, each man a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable."
Literary significance
Markings is characterised by Hammarskjöld's intermingling of prose and haikuHaiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
poetry in a manner exemplified by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho
Matsuo Basho
, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...
in his Narrow Roads to the Deep North. Representative examples include:
The Easter-lily's dew-wet calyx.
Drops pausing
Between earth and sky.
They laid the blame on him.
He didn't know what it was,
But he confessed it.
Trees quiver in the wind,
Sailing on a sea of mist
Out of earshot.
In his foreword to Markings, the English poet W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
states: "Markings, however, was not intended to be read simply as a work of literature. It is also an historical document of the first importance as an account—and I cannot myself recall another—of the attempt by a professional man of action to unite in one life the Via Activa and the Via Contemplativa." Auden quotes Hammarskjöld as stating "In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action."