Site-archief
Gedicht in Dublin Airport
Swanlight
.
In 2017 werden passagiers die Ierland verlieten via Dublin Airport geconfronteerd met installaties van Ierse kunstenaars om op die manier een positief blijvende indruk van Ierland mee te geven. Niet alleen werden visuele kunstinstallaties met de titel ‘Vibrant Irish Light’ geplaatst in opvallende kleuren van de regenboog maar er werd ook het gedicht ‘Swanlight’ uit 2001 van de Ierse dichter, priester, auteur en Hegeliaans filosoof John O’Donohue (1956 – 2008) getoond maar ook teksten van andere Ierse auteurs. Of deze installaties en gedichten nog steeds te zien zijn weet ik niet maar ze zien er prachtig uit.
.
Swanlight
.
If it could say itself January
Might brighten its syllables on the frost
Of these first New Year days whose cold is blue.
Might brighten its syllables on the frost
Of these first New Year days whose cold is blue.
.
Meanwhile in this corner of its silence
A weak winter sun lowers down behind
The moor that rises away from the lake.
A weak winter sun lowers down behind
The moor that rises away from the lake.
.
Beyond reach of light, the shadowed water
Succumbs to this darkening of spirit
That would deny the bog today’s twilight.
Succumbs to this darkening of spirit
That would deny the bog today’s twilight.
.
All of a sudden something else breaks through
To appear at the far end of the lake
In two diagrams of white, uneven light.
To appear at the far end of the lake
In two diagrams of white, uneven light.
.
I have never seen white so absolute
And alone, glistening in awkward form
Dreaming across the water a bright path.
And alone, glistening in awkward form
Dreaming across the water a bright path.
.
As it stirs and changes I see what it is:
Two swans have found the mirror in the lake
Where a V of horizon lets light through
Two swans have found the mirror in the lake
Where a V of horizon lets light through
.
To make them light-source and light-shape in one.
Now they swim and fade through windows of reed
And disrobe the lake of apparition.
Now they swim and fade through windows of reed
And disrobe the lake of apparition.
.
I look and look into their vanishing
See nothing. Departing that perfect ground
I knew I had been hungry for a blessing.
See nothing. Departing that perfect ground
I knew I had been hungry for a blessing.
.
.
ZICHTBAAR ALLEEN 