Eva Colombo, A day in exile, third chapter: The twilight orchid ( Inspired
by Ludwig von Hofmann’ s painting Daydream, 1898 )
You didn’t want me into your town. You told me that my eyes are like the shadow
into a reticule of too narrow streets where at each bend you hope to meet the
daylight and it never happens. You told me that my name is like the echo into a
dark labyrinth, an echo which you don’t have the bravery to follow since you
don’t know if it will lead you to salvation or to desperation. I replied that
there may be beauty and salvation in the shadow but you have to know that
shadow, you have to understand her. Now that it is late afternoon and the
shadows are growing longer I may help you to understand the language of the
shadow and in so doing I will reward you for your hospitality. But you didn’t
believe me and you’ve left me outside the walls of your town, all alone on a
stony ground in front of the sea. Now I look at the sea and I feel that the tide
is raising together with my tears, now I look at the crescent moon and I notice
that a compassionate woman white – clad like the moon is going into a tunnel to
whisper my name to the roots of a maritime pine tree which waves its top over
the walls of your town. I don’t cry, I know what I have to do. At twilight, when
the sky will be as beautiful as the violet orchid which I wear in my hair and
the high tide will have flooded the stony ground, I will chant a spell so that
the sky will bind itself to the sea. So at nightfall the high tide on the stony
ground will be like the sky of a May twilight, the high tide on the stony ground
will be as beautiful as the violet orchids which flower upon the stones, in the
shadow. And through the branches of the maritime pine the crescent moon’s beams
will be harp’s strings, and the pine’s needles wavy in the sea breeze will be
fingers which with those strings will make my name resound. Then you will wake
up and you will lean out of the walls of your town and you will realize that the
flooded stony ground will have changed into the sky of an enchanting May
twilight and the cropped – out stones will be clouds imbued with precious violet
afterglow. And you will see me, seated upon one of those clouds. My shadowy eyes
will sparkle in the moonlight and the orchid in my hair will be the smile of
those who flower in the shadow. |
