Plain English translation of John Donnes

Meditation 17
Maybe the bell rings for someone so sick or so deluded that he doesn't
Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he _____________________________________________________________________________
even recognize that the bell is ringing in his demise. Perhaps I am that
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knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself
deluded person, thinking myself to be much better off. Others see me in
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
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reality,
know I am ill, and have caused the bell to signal my own death, but
not that.
I _____________________________________________________________________________
am ignorant of it.

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.

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My church, headed by the pope, is all-encompassing, and everything
the church does affects us and concerns us all. When a child is admitted
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through
a water ritual into the church, I feel it because the child is now
connected,
as I am, to the body of the church, she is part of that body of
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believers that I am a member of.
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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;

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Again, should the church give a funeral for a believer, I feel it as well,
because
we are connected not only by the church, but by our Creator,
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for all men are created by one Maker, and as such, are part of the same
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creation, be it called a body, or a book. If a book, when a man dies and
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is received by God, the chapter of his life is not torn or ruined, but is
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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.

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God uses different tools to 'upgrade' us or to transform our bodies. Some
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agents he uses are age, or illness, or war, some even by justice, but
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whatever tool is used, it is used by God, and he will likewise take all the
scattered pages together in a new book, putting it in his great book
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collection,
where all our lives' chapters are laid open together.
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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.

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Just like the bell that rings to call us to a service does not ring for the
pastor
but for the flock of believers also, so does the bell of death ring, at
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different times, but it rings for us all. It calls me especially at this time, as
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I am so near death due to this sickness that is upon me.
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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.

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There was an argument that almost went to a suit (in which religious
devotion and human pride were mixed) about which of the deacons
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or order of priests should ring first for prayers. And they decided that the
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earliest waker would ring first.
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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.

If we understand the respect that is due to our prayer bell, even when it
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rings in the evening, we should be anxious to make the respect our own
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by waking early, because the early waker would get the blessings. The
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bell rings for the man who wants that blessing, and even if it stops, when
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the
final bell rings for him, he is taken to God's side.
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upgraded into a better format, like we all will be one day.

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?

Who doesn't like looking at the sunrise? But who turns away from a
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comet
that flashes across the sky? Who shuts his ears from a bell when it
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is
rung?
But yet who can run away or take away a bell that is delivering
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his soul away from this world?
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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 the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were:

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No man is an single entity or a independent piece of the puzzle. He is
joined to all mankind like a piece of the entire land. If a piece of mud is
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washed away by the sea, the smallest continent, ours, is smaller, the
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same would occur with any point that juts out from the body, or if your
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house or your friend's was the point. Even so:
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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.

Any man's death lessens me, because I am part of mankind. So never

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try to figure out who the bell is calling, you might find out it is calling you.
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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.

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I'm not saying this to engulf you in sadness; we are all sad and miserable
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enough as it is. We aren't trying to take in more pain, as if we didn't have
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adequate misery, so we would need to borrow it from people next door.
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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.

Actually, it would be okay for us to envy sadness if we wanted to,

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as pain and suffering is something to be valued like a treasure, and man
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hardly ever suffers enough. Suffering and torment is something that
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matures us and makes us closer to God and better fit for his use, so
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it is never 'too much', just because it always betters us.

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.

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If a man is carrying some treasure in a large block, and hasn't broken it
down or converted it into money, that treasure doesn't help pay costs.
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Trials and distress is treasure and it is valuable, but we can't use it for
currency right now, except it helps us as we get nearer and nearer to
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death, and also, heaven.
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Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this
affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no
use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out
and applies that gold to me:

If a man is sick, so sick that he is close to dying, this suffering may be

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inside him, like gold under the ground. It's not really any good to him,
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but the bell rings and tells me about his sickness, and so digs that
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gold out and gives the value of the lesson to me. This lesson being:
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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.

That I should consider any man that is close to meeting his maker, and
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learn that the bell could ring for me at any time, so secure myself by
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living a spiritual earthly life, and make things at peace with God, because
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he is the only secure thing in the afterlife.
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