30.7.06

EVEN NATURE GIVES YOU NO CHOICE

When you have seen a cloud
in the lap of a pond;
and the moon
between the waterlilies;
inevitably you are at the mercy
of your own soul.

What is this sound that wakens me at night?

It is biology, it calls out its rights.
At night you can hear it more
clearly, when the
sociologists are sleeping.

- Eeva Kilpi

eco para o teu farol (mnemosyne)

Let me fold something white
as a rose to you
longing like me

The paper leaps up
ready for the next slice

I maintain
there is nothing of penance in this
that I'm not just up for anything

What is written will avenge itself
will grow smaller and smaller
a trivial stain in the end to our eyes

Hahaha
the night of the knives
more than small lies

take care of the dreams
white beasts may have:

Trembly impossible longing
lacerated beauty
the kind we see in one another

breath icing-up on its way away
it can just as well be
in this night of tales

- Lene Henningsen



Who has claim?

Nobody has claim.

All have claim.

And all are to blame. Starting with the anachronical fanatics.


One day, one.
"Those who are slow to know suppose that slowness is the essence of knowledge."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

19.7.06

O teu nome de deusa.
Drumskins.

On a grotto wall a reminder of winter;

Eallin
Life
Eternal

A circle within-
Engenho, como um esticar de sóis

A lombada, sinal

Estepe...
A concha é uma traineira roxa com homens à faina.

Vens na espuma oleada promessa das brasas.

És muito. Como tens lugar ao tempo?
É o som.

Harmónica tu fazes aldeia colecção caruma.

Quantas pedras saltaram pelo rio fora pela tua mão apavorada?
Sem saber onde estás tive vontade de te despir a alma num abraço que não se findava na epiderme.

Tu, de repente, vieste e eu em ti.

Não havia lei alguma.

18.7.06



Tem que ser.
we shall no more

we shall no more forebode the sea
not even recall the troubled salt
of mouths over this face, a twin with our
covering mask

insane ashen bird soaring through thin air
and the lucent froth of blinding meteors
the sleepless city's throbbing foundations

we will no more be mirrored in unspent motions
nor in the dawn-pouring tongue's derangement
and nomads we will travel, on beyond the blood
afloat in a dark dream
bodies aflame entwined
consumed creating unsuspicious constellations
lumbering
across centuries returning
intact to the first void

- Al Berto (trad. minha)

17.7.06

E tu, tu és o ícone da alvorada cujas mãos entrelaçadas nas minhas reforçam as palavras do outro, o abraço dos amantes contra a certeza da morte. Hei-de ver-te obstáculo ao luar no nosso quarto por entre dedos sedentos, paixão e palavra e centelha. Mulher desígnio incipiente no rumo da própria palavra.


Thank you, my good friend in Slovenija, and though I know this bottle differs from either one you sent, I dare not scan any of them for fear of damaging them. The contents are maturing for ever and merry ever in the blood that drives these hands.

16.7.06



I'm gonna pull you in close
I'm gonna wrap you up tight
I'm gonna play with the braids that you came here with tonight
I'm gonna hold your face, and toast the snow that fell
Cuz friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell

I feel like love is in the kitchen with a culinary eye
I think he's making something special
And I'm smart enough to try
If you don't trust yourself for at least one minute each day,
Well you should trust in this, girl, cuz loving is coming our way.

If you can fix me up we'll go a long way
If you can fix me up, girl, we'll go a long way.

(Take my love in real small doses.)

I will stand by all this drinking if it helps me through these days
It takes a long time just to get this all straight.
I'll showcase on Route 7 when I find the right place
It takes a long time just to get this all straight
In my mind, this is my free-time
Cuz friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell.

(Take my love in real small doses)

I will stand by all this drinking if it helps me through these days
But I've spent a long time corresponding in my own way.
I'll showcase on Route 7 when I find the right place
But it takes a long time just to get this all straight
In my mind, this is my free time...

To let it all away
Spend it all today
Spend it all today
It took time then I found you.

12.7.06

YOU WEREN'T THERE
(Sullivan) 1999


Well, you say it's such a small, small world
flying Club Class back from the far-east
curled up safe and warm in the big chair
you were drifting through the skies of anywhere
Get the courtesy car to the Sheraton
there's live on-the-spot reports on the CNN between the ad-breaks
so you think you know what's going on - but you don't
because you weren't in Belfast, no you weren't there
and no you weren't in Waco, no you weren't there
and you weren't in Kosovo, you weren't there
and you weren't in my head so you don't know how it felt
walking arm in arm with crowds to the square
and the banners waving and the sun glinting

All this information swims round and round
like a shoal of fish in a tank going nowhere
Up and down between the glass walls
You're so safe in the knowledge they're impenetrable
and you look out at the world and see nothing at all
so go back to sleep and you'll be woken when the time comes
and you'll never know just what hit you or where it came from
because you weren't in Bradford, no you weren't there
and you weren't on the hill, no you weren't there
and you weren't with us so you never saw
just what happened when the television crews came knocking on the door
how the people told them all to go to Hell,
smashed the cameras and sent them away
There were sirens going off and policemen coming in
and all that you love was being swept away
in the rush of a black tide all done in your name
and you'll never know just what happened there
or how it feels - just how it feels . . .


We're on!

4.7.06

Ezekiel 1

1And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth of the month, and I [am] in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God.

2In the fifth of the month -- it is the fifth year of the removal of the king Jehoiachin --

3hath the word of Jehovah certainly been unto Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of Jehovah.

4And I look, and lo, a tempestuous wind is coming from the north, a great cloud, and fire catching itself, and brightness to it round about, and out of its midst as the colour of copper, out of the midst of the fire.

5And out of its midst [is] a likeness of four living creatures, and this [is] their appearance; a likeness of man [is] to them,

6and four faces [are] to each, and four wings [are] to each of them,

7and their feet [are] straight feet, and the sole of their feet [is] as a sole of a calf's foot, and they are sparkling as the colour of bright brass;

8and hands of man under their wings -- on their four sides, and their faces and their wings -- [are] to them four;

9joining one unto another [are] their wings, they turn not round in their going, each straight forward they go.

10As to the likeness of their faces, the face of a man, and the face of a lion, toward the right [are] to them four, and the face of an ox on the left [are] to them four, and the face of an eagle [are] to them four.

11And their faces and their wings are separate from above, to each [are] two joining together, and two are covering their bodies.

12And each straight forward they go, whither the spirit is to go, they go, they turn not round in their going.

13As to the likeness of the living creatures, their appearances [are] as coals of fire -- burning as the appearance of lamps; it is going up and down between the living creatures, and brightness [is] to the fire, and out of the fire is going forth lightning.

14And the living creatures are running, and turning back, as the appearance of the flash.

15And I see the living creatures, and lo, one wheel [is] in the earth, near the living creatures, at its four faces.

16The appearance of the wheels and their works [is] as the colour of beryl, and one likeness [is] to them four, and their appearances and their works [are] as it were the wheel in the midst of the wheel.

17On their four sides, in their going they go, they turn not round in their going.

18As to their rings, they are both high and fearful, and their rings [are] full of eyes round about them four.

19And in the going of the living creatures, the wheels go beside them, and in the living creatures being lifted up from off the earth, lifted up are the wheels.

20Whither the spirit is to go, they go, thither the spirit [is] to go, and the wheels are lifted up over-against them, for a living spirit [is] in the wheels.

21In their going, they go; and in their standing, they stand; and in their being lifted up from off the earth, lifted up are the wheels over-against them; for a living spirit [is] in the wheels.

22And a likeness [is] over the heads of the living creatures of an expanse, as the colour of the fearful ice, stretched out over their heads from above.

23And under the expanse their wings [are] straight, one toward the other, to each are two covering on this side, and to each are two covering on that side -- their bodies.

24And I hear the noise of their wings, as the noise of many waters, as the noise of the Mighty One, in their going -- the noise of tumult, as the noise of a camp, in their standing they let fall their wings.

25And there is a voice from above the expanse, that [is] above their head: in their standing they let fall their wings.

26And above the expanse that [is] over their head, as an appearance of a sapphire stone, [is] the likeness of a throne, and on the likeness of the throne a likeness, as the appearance of man upon it from above.

27And I see as the colour of copper, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I have seen as the appearance of fire, and brightness [is] to it round about.

28As the appearance of the bow that is in a cloud in a day of rain, so [is] the appearance of the brightness round about.


THE SHIELD-MAIDEN

I dreamed about swords last night.
I dreamed about battle last night.
I dreamed I fought by your side
armoured and strong, last night.

Lightning flashed harsh from your hand,
and the giants fell at your feet.
Our ranks closed lightly and sang
in silent darkness' threat.

I dreamed about blood last night.
I dreamed about death last night.
I dreamed I fell by your side
with a mortal wound, last night.

You marked not at all that I fell.
Earnest was your mouth.
With steady hand the shield you held,
and went your way straight forth.

I dreamed about fire last night.
I dreamed about roses last night.
I dreamed my death was fair and good.
So did I dream last night.

-Karin Boye