Right, that's the twitters dealt with.....
I spent my teenage years enthralled by tales of happenings, enamoured by the work of Craig, in love with the Birth of Narcissus, and chortling to the Cheese Shop sketch. In a fit of youthful hubris I wrote half a scene for a reworking of Hamlet, in which the actors erupt form the stage and take the audience hostage; complete with pyrotechnics and fake blood. The ultimate revenge tragedy you might say. A one night only experience to set my name alongside Stravinsky.
Of course I had overlooked that the audience at the Rite of Spring were rioting to get onto the stage. And the reality of Brecht breaking out of the proscenium arch was that his revolutionary theatre marched, banners waving, straight into kitsch of school drama classes.
Thus when I discovered google translate I was rather excited. Unfortunately, the tool is not as useful as it once was, due to linguists and literalists making it fit for purpose. Back in the day, it was the perfect surrealist thesaurus. Type in a phrase, translate it into French, convert it back English, and receive something best described as 'you know what they meant'. If the result was not quite right, repeat the process, in German, or Serbian, or Chinese, the possibility was endless.
At some point in the process, I returned to the poems I had written in runes. These you may recall, used runes to mask the content from the prying, and possibly mocking, eyes of coworkers. Yet, runes have a meaning in and of themselves.
Love
Ice: ansus mannez :
Sowelu ewaz largo feyu largo ewaz sowelu sowelu
northaz ewaz sowelu sowelu :
wunju hagalaz ewaz northaz:
ansus largo largo :
raido ewaz teewahz ur raido northaz sowelu :
teewahz othillo :
mannez ewaz ::
Be still : know yourself :
Move to the light and grow fat : grow with life :
For the light of the double sun is your guide :
Find joy in adversity and your need for truth :
Let talk flow : for wisdom is achieved in defeating weakness :
Vanquish loneliness and stay true to your quest :
Ice : ansus mannez :
Ken othillo northaz sowelu teewahz ansus northaz ken yerah :
Othillo feyu : largo ice geebu hagalaz teewahz sowelu :
Ewaz wunju
Ewaz raido :
Ken hagalaz ansus northaz geebu ice ing ::
Be still : know yourself :
In loneliness we understand the need for others :
The need to converse and find new insight :
Only stunted riches lie within : as winter
turns to bring the growth of spring :
The path of happiness and knowledge
is beset with hardship and doubt :
Ice : ansus mannez :
Ansus largo largo :
Ansus northaz dagu :
Northaz othillo thuraz ice ing ::
Be still : know yourself :
Let words flow as water : transform with words
your inner needs : you are but one : together
we become the wings of the butterfly :
The poem obviously has V-effect. The reader is subconsciously repelled, and may consciously declare that it is self indulgent bullshit. This reaction reinforced by the title. It meets none of the expectations of a chocolate box love poem, nor does it fit into the genre of angsty self help - though there are invitations towards New Age self discovery.
At it's heart is a three line riddle, which can be read as an acrostic.
The translation of the runes, my interpretation, are literal - as much as any oracle materials can be literal.
Not that the poem needs interpretation. It can just be read as it is, and the runic elements treated as a meditative mantra.
I am, and still am, a little dubious of the 'the double sun'. But one cannot deal with the runic occult on any serious level without running into moral issues of the mid twentieth century. However, the swastika has an ancient history. It is doubtful if the person who went up the moor I see from my window, two and half thousand years ago, carved the swastika stone as a statement of grievance over the 18th century partition of Poland or the Napoleonic laws of religious toleration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Cue random photo to make the Facebooks look jazzy....
No comments:
Post a Comment