The essential nature of words is therefore neither exhausted by their
present meaning, nor is their importance confined to their usefulness as
transmitters of thoughts and ideas, but they express at the same time
qualities which are not translatable into concepts—just as a melody which,
though it may be associated with a conceptual meaning, cannot be described by
words or by any other medium of expression. And it is just that irrational
quality which stirs up our deepest feelings, elevates our innermost being, and
makes it vibrate with others.
The magic which poetry exerts upon us, is due to this quality and the
rhythm combined therewith. It is stronger than what the words convey
objectively—stronger even than reason with all its logic, in which we
believe so firmly...
If art can be called the re-creation and formal expression of reality
through the medium of human experience, then the creation of language may be
called the greatest achievement of art. Each word originally was a focus of
energies, in which the transformation of reality into the vibrations of the
human voicethe&mash;vital expression of the human soul—took place.
—Lama Angarika Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism (Rider & Co., 1960), no translator given
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