Sunday, January 22, 2012

What will the indecipherable future dream? ... Borges (Still missing Etta & Johnny)

Ric Nagualero*
It doesn't feel quite right to move on from the deaths of Etta James and Johnny Otis so soon (my previous post), but their lives and impact are being sung in so many publications, including the L.A. Times and the Guardian, which I regularly read, and beautifully so, in articles, photos, appreciations.

Every so often I'm proud of the human race. We don't have much capacity to identify stupidity, but sometimes we do know genius.

Tonight I'm going to post another selection from Poems of the Night, a gathering of work from several of Jorge Luis Borges' collections. I want, for myself, his easy passage into dream and back, his understanding of depth, process and transparency of the collective unconsciousness, of the momentous occasion of its existence, and a personal access through myth and dream (and good fortune). Borges gives me hope as an artist and as a believer (in many things).

Each sentence below is a meditation.

Someone Will Dream

What will the indecipherable future dream?  A dream that Alonso Quijano can be Don Quixote without leaving his village and his books.  A dream that the eve of Ulysses can be more prodigious than the poem that recounts his hardships. Dreaming human generations that will not recognize the name of Ulysses. Dreaming dreams more precise than today's wakefulness. A dream that we will be able to do miracles and that we won't do them, because it will be more real to imagine them. Dreaming worlds so intense that the voice of one bird could kill you. Dreaming that to forget and to remember can be voluntary actions, not aggressions or gifts of chance. A dream that we shall see with our whole body, as Milton wished from the shadow of those tender orbs, his eyes.  Dreaming a world without machines and without that afflicted machine, the body. Life is not a dream, Novalis writes, but can become a dream.

Suzanne Jill Levine tr.

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Borges, Waiting for the Night, Poems of the Night (Penguin).

*Painting by Ric Nagualero: www.nagualero.com / Facebook.com/nagualero

3 comments:

  1. Good content, I trust this is a good weblog about Wish to see refreshing content material next time. Thanks for sharing this publish with us. Keep it up.

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  2. Just to let you know you are violating my copyright by not crediting or asking permission to use my painting on this post. If you wish to use it please credit it. Painting by Ric nagualero - www.nagualero.com - Facebook.com/nagualero

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  3. Ric...Thank you. You have every right to complain/point that out. I can't remember where I found it. I won't even go into it but will keep your comment here and add the attribution to my posting. It's a gorgeous painting, by the way.
    Sarah

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