Wednesday 13 May 2015

THE COMBAT FOR LIGHT (CARLOS MARZAL ) AND THE NATURE OF LIGHT.

At first, I was going to post only the five first lines of this poem, which sound very well, as if it were a prayer. Eventually, I decided to post the whole poem. It is a bit long, but I think it´s worth it. It belongs to the book “Heavy metals” from 2001. I like the line “the straight proportion of that miracle”, because it suggests that the propagation of the light is straight. The topic of light is very common in Literature and we´ll deal with it again in this blog.



For having seen the light so much, we have lost
the straight proportion of that miracle,
which gives the substance its volume,
faithful outline to the world we want
and limit to the cardinal points.
Purely out of habit, we have ended up
believing that we deserve , each day,
that the day rises in brightness
and  limpid to our eyes,
so our look can give it its own order,
different from others and turning it into
our unseen work of art.
There is a consubstantial ingratitude
to the fact of being alive, an intrinsic
power of forgetfulness, and they prevent us
from providing the tribute
that each moment deserves,
because of the absolute magic of being existing
instead of not having existed at all.
With each dubious sunrise,
with every tumultuous sunrise,
light devastates the night kingdom
and starts its combat. In the hazy
magma of darkness, with every dawn
triumphs the accuracy of everything that exists
over the vocation of uncertainty that
tempts reality with its nothingness.
In every early morning, a spell of beginning
is renewed, that formula which
imposed  movement to the first day.
We are witnesses, during the pure dawn,
of the throne where the light raises its kingdom in,
and  gives it intact to any subject.
We should contemplate the light more patiently,
Paying more exciting attention,
the submissive tribute with which a barbarian,
reverent in his adventure, discovers
the land which none has ever seen.