Word: hammarskjolds
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...When Hammarskjold expounds on such themes, he is at his least interesting. Doubtless what he says is true, but it is also platitudinous; surely no one reading that "there is a profound causal relationship between the height of a man's ambition and the depth of a man's fall" will thrill at the keenness of the insight. The Hammarskjold revealed by observations like this is still the conscientious public servant that we have always seen...
...concern with morality carries him into the religious realm, Hammarskjold becomes infinitely more interesting, both as a thinker and as a man, for it soon becomes clear that the former Secretary-General was a throughgoing mystic inclined toward asceticism. Although his outlook will hardly appeal to all readers, those who can accept the tenets of Hammarskjold's faith-they are not accessible to reason-will respond strongly to his observations on selflessness and love...
...philosophy will still find Markingsa rewarding book, but chiefly for the light it casts on the inner life of a prominent and powerful man. Although phrases like "to answer Yes to Someone" and "the co-inherence of all things" may have no real meaning, something they represent sustained Hammarskjold during long years when, always on the brink of physical exhaustion, he labored under tremendous pressures, often without recognition...
Markingsteems with quotations from the Bible (principally from Psalms) and from noted mystics like Meister Eckhart. The heavy use of such material raises the question of whether Hammarskjold's mysticism was acquired through first-hand experience or not. But the question is unanswerable. Only someone like Eckhart could determine the genuineness of Hammarskjold's inspiration; the rest of us can merely view this unsuspected facet of his character with surprise-and perhaps admiration...
...Hammarskjold began writing haiku, 17-syllable poems based on a Japanese form. Translations by W.H. Auden of some of Hammarskjold's haiku appear below...