Plain English translation of John Donnes

Meditation 17
Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he
knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself
so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and
see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know
not that.

If the bell rang for a dead man he might

_____________________________________________________________________________
not notice that bell is ringing for him.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I might think that the bell is ringing
_____________________________________________________________________________
for me. However, if the bell really ring
_____________________________________________________________________________
for me I probably won't notice.
_____________________________________________________________________________

The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all

that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that
action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to
that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body
whereof I am a member.

The church is for everyone.

_____________________________________________________________________________
When another kid become
_____________________________________________________________________________
God's child that affect me
_____________________________________________________________________________
as well as my body
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all
mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man
dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated
into a better language; and every chapter must be so
translated;

When
people die, everyone is the same.
_____________________________________________________________________________
However,
a person's death is not the end
_____________________________________________________________________________
of
the
story,
it's a part of it. Death
_____________________________________________________________________________
people's
stories passed down to more and
_____________________________________________________________________________
more
people.
_____________________________________________________________________________

God employs several translators; some pieces are translated

by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but
God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up
all our scattered leaves again for that library where every
book shall lie open to one another.

God had divided people in many

_____________________________________________________________________________
different ways. God is the one who
_____________________________________________________________________________
put people all together and make
_____________________________________________________________________________
every connected.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the
preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this
bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so
near the door by this sickness.

The rings of the bell is not only for

_____________________________________________________________________________
sermon or preach but also to share the
_____________________________________________________________________________
joy of the people who was brought closer
_____________________________________________________________________________
to heaven.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety

and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of
the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the
morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first
that rose earliest.
If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for
our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by
rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well
as his, whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks
it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute
that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.

People
were arguing about the orders for
_____________________________________________________________________________
ringing
the bell in the morning . They
_____________________________________________________________________________
had
decided that they should ring the
_____________________________________________________________________________
bell
as soon as the sun rise.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

If
people understand how important is
_____________________________________________________________________________
to
ring the bell in the evening they
_____________________________________________________________________________
will
not be fighting for ringing the
_____________________________________________________________________________
morning
bell.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who
takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who
bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings?
but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece
of himself out of this world?

We, human being, who will observe

_____________________________________________________________________________
sunrises, who will stare at the sky
_____________________________________________________________________________
waiting for a comet breaks out, who
_____________________________________________________________________________
will not listen to a ringing bell? who
_____________________________________________________________________________
will ignore it? No one.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Human
beings do not thrive when isolated
_____________________________________________________________________________
from
others. A lump of dirt washed off by
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 peninsula and the dirt
_____________________________________________________________________________
the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
like
the principal of the friendship.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Death, everyone has to face. Death
_____________________________________________________________________________
make me smaller and let me know that
_____________________________________________________________________________
Im a human being. So the ringing
_____________________________________________________________________________
bell is for me.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing

of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of
ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in
taking upon us the misery of our neighbours.

We cant ask for misery and were not

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
that bad. We still can have our own
_____________________________________________________________________________
house as a neighbor's.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for

affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and
ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction.

The great desire to compare with others,

_____________________________________________________________________________
won't get God's care and mercy. No one
_____________________________________________________________________________
can conquer the pain; no one can suffer
_____________________________________________________________________________
it. Only God can cure the pain and fear.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

If
a person has the value of a wedge of
_____________________________________________________________________________
gold
and unlimited of money. The value
_____________________________________________________________________________
will
not be discharge as time goes. Ones
_____________________________________________________________________________
life
is very valuable that money cant
_____________________________________________________________________________
equal
only equals when the person goes to
_____________________________________________________________________________
heaven.
People
whos sick, the death is moving
_____________________________________________________________________________
towards
them. They cant go to heaven
Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this
_____________________________________________________________________________
theyre
passed away even a person
affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no when
_____________________________________________________________________________
use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out lies
in gold. Wealthy doesnt present
_____________________________________________________________________________
and applies that gold to me:
anything.
Although they cant go to God,
_____________________________________________________________________________
the bell is still ringing which the bell
will lead us to God and wealth.
If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and
have none coined into current money, his treasure will not
defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the
nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except
we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it.

if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own

into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my
recourse to my God, who is our only security.

_____________________________________________________________________________
If
I interfered other danger, I will
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
survey
it, protect myself with the
_____________________________________________________________________________
ringing
bell. The bell is human beings
_____________________________________________________________________________
ultimate
pass to heaven.