Larsil2009's Blog

The water vole

When rowan

produces big clusters

we expect a cold winter

When clouds of unrest

are seen at the horizon

we expect hard times

When children

are terrified in the evening

the real face of our time is seen

–

Now the berries are ripe

and through the storm

the sound of boots

over memory’s tombstones are heard

while backs are bent

waiting for hits from rifle butts

by men in black

A wine press

is set up for the wine trodder from Edom

–

Expecting the winter

the water vole collects food

a big heap

preparing for the hunger

it’s simple wisdom points out for the future

while Man still is sleeping a final year

until the Golden calf and the Colossus

walk southward to slaughter

through beautiful towns

burned

but guarded by the eyes of death

below the surface of the sea

while the mantle of the wine trodder

is coloured red by sprinklings

when the hands of hate

are crushed

–
Then the old stars have fallen

from high positions

Then the sun of the west has lost

its obvious shine

and the moon

has banged its horns bloody

in the quest of power

The wine trodder’s vessel is overflowing

and surprised

Man awakes

–

The rowan berries cores that fell to the ground

germinate and grow into a forest

The wine that was trodden

ripens in a new vessel

The children that were terrified

have forgotten their tears

and the clouds of unrest

have passed

and the babies of the water vole

are playing at the edge of the field

–

Then messengers are sent

from country to country

to show a new spring awaiting humanity

There is a just law

governing the world

and the wind that makes waves in the growing fields
brings laughter

and fragments of words

in a language everybody understands

–

Then

it is said

he was young

when he died at an age of eighty

and the wolf

and the lion

link arms

with the sheep

Some words about the poem

A wrote the poem ”Vattensorken” /”The water vole” when the war in the Balkan area was at its peak. It felt like the insane violence would never end. The poem hints at similar hard times in Europe not very far in the past, I am thinking of Hitler’s and Stalin’s terror. The reader also probably recognizes that I use references to the time of the end in the Bible. The references to the Sun and the Moon shouldn’t be too difficult to understand.

Prophesies regarding ”the time of the end” tend to be taken very literally with stars falling from the sky destroying everything around us. The poem shows another possibly slightly surprising way of reading these texts based on a bahai point of view. Is it possible that perhaps ”the time of the end” already arrived, and passed,  but humanity was so blind and blinded by its small every day’s problems that nobody noticed?

The picture is taken from ”pudlarpelargoner.blogspot.com”.

This entry was posted on 19/03/2013 at 09:25 and is filed under Material in English. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.