Eva Colombo, Eyes that see in the dark, second chapter: The Hegemonic Moon (
Inspired by Remedios Varo’s painting To be reborn )
The waning moon rises before the sun. In summertime Sirius, the burning star,
rises before the sun too. You are born in summer, during the period of the
waning moon: the very day of the last quarter. Now it’s night, it’s your
birthday night and you can’t sleep. You’re weeping, and you’re too weak to raise
your eyes to the sky. You wish someone to take you by the hand and dry your
tears, but nobody does it. It’s raining, but it will stop soon. Soon the sun
will rise and it will set in motion a world where there is no room for you,
there is no time for you. But now it’s still night, the waning moon listens to
your weeping and remembers. She remembers you. If you were strong enough to lift
your eyes to the sky you would come across her look that shines through the
clouds that are clearing up. Gather your tears and the rain into your hands and
let the moon mirror herself into this living cup. You will realize that she is
the same waning moon that has heard your birth – weeping… she is here for you,
she wishes to toast your birthday. Drink from the cup of your hands the tears
and the rain that shine as the look of the waning moon, do it right now, don’t
let them be dried up by the sun. Drink from the cup of your hands and you will
find out that the waning moon shines inside yourself too: she is the moon that
has seen your birth, that very waning moon called Hegemonic Moon by the ancients
because she raises before the sun. She doesn’t wait for the sun to take her by
the hand, she isn’t afraid of the dark. All alone she finds her way and she
takes over the night sky. Now you’ve stopped weeping and the rain has stopped
too. Your eyes are burning but they see clearer and into the dark thrilled by
the dawn’s touch they distinguish the star Sirius on the horizon. Sirius who is
burning like an eye made sharper by weeping, an eye capable of finding its way
into the dark. The sun will raise and it will set in motion a world where there
is no room for you, there is no time for you. Nobody will take you by the hand
and still you’ll have to go into that very world, all alone. The sun will dazzle
your eyes and you will turn your back on the sun. The sun will cast your shadow
in front of you, a shadow so dark that you will be forced to stop. Then you will
close your eyes and the dark of your eyelids will be brightened by the Hegemonic
Moon and the Burning Sirius, and you will find your way. |
