Depends on whether the Soul is a small or capital "I"...in which case the Landlord might charge a far too high a price...

Villanelle: For whom does the Self pay rent: Body or Soul

Dedicated to Professor Sarvepalli RADHAKRISHNAN, the former Philosopher President of India - in memory of an hour and ten minutes of discussion at his official residence in New Delhi in May 1961.

(He was also the first Vice-President and Ambassador to Moscow and Chairman of UNESCO after WWII and Vice-Chancellor of Benares University. He served as Professor of Ethics and Oriental Philosophy at Oxford University before WWII. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature sixteen times. Eminently known as the "show-case" of India, his defence of Hinduism against ill-informed critics remains exemplary in the annals of academic extrapolation. ) T. Wignesan

For whom does the self pay rent: body or soul
..."i" say "I" and you say why not wait till "i" die
Who seeks the Landlord in the head to console

How many the bodies laid low in camisole*
...Release the soul in saints and rishis gone by
For whom does the self pay rent: body or soul

Which self thinks first in the heart and for what goal
...Who best opens an account where the heart must lie
Who seeks the Landlord in the head to console

Who owns the name of the self when things go foul
...Must the heart stop to make the head go stark dry
For whom does the self pay rent: body or soul

Solder the broken body Mend the ripped soul
...Must the self take the blame for hazard or lie
Who seeks the Landlord in the head to console

The body is not your own to house the soul
...The rent the Landlord charges is far too high
For whom does the self pay rent: body or soul
...Who seeks the Landlord in the head to console

*camisole: French for strait jacket

© T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017