Lars Gustafsson: 'Etyder' (IV)

 

                                                              IV.

 

At a poet’s grave

He drank darkness

Darkness and silence

From the silence the faint clicking

of the death-watch could be heard

He breathed calmly

And finally saw himself freed

from the torment of being someone else

And finally free,

free to be no one and everyone

 

 

Maestro A. said

 

When you have discovered

that the organ’s deep pedal point

you sense

furthest down there

in the cellar vault of

your own existence 

is not the keynote of fear

but is affinity

with every string

that vibrates –

do not attempt to make

wisdom out of this insight

For then it disappears.

The great white song

 

For a moment the world was whole

And this freedom existed

 

Like a lone bird above the roofs

I don’t know where

 

I have been away a long time now

The flowers in the window are drooping

 

But one of them lives on

more resplendent than ever

 

The one you planted in my heart

You water it forever with your song