Jane's "I sat in the sun"

I sat in the sun

I sat in the sun

By Jane Hirshfield b. 1953Jane Hirshfield

I moved my chair into sun

I sat in the sun

the way hunger is moved when called fasting.

-“Hunger,” a natural need, is repositioned by us for the sake of something spiritual. We take something we would ordinarily satisfy and turn it into a devotion. We take a weakness and try to make it a strength.

What is strange is how the last line of the poem all the above makes any sense.The first two lines, by contrast, are much more difficult because of the all-too-simple image. “I moved my chair into sun” becomes “I sat in the sun.” “Moved” becomes “sat;” motion terminates in rest. “Chair,” an instrument, disappears in action. “Sun” is revealed as “the sun:” parts become whole, distinctions are made, through experience.

The spiritual is realized. Motion and instrumentality fade away. Knowledge takes on an aspect of the whole and isn’t quite knowledge as a result. What’s interesting is how the need (hunger) and the sacrifice (fasting) are parallel with what might seem hedonism – taking one’s fill of warmth and light on a relaxed, sunny day. I don’t even know this is a mere parallel. The way is the same.