translations and recreations by Ruth Salles
blackboard drawing by Verônica Calandra Martins
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All
poem by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer
The Spirit said: “Look, it was in a dream.
In the clear space the gaze lifted I put.
I see the Lord departing between the clouds
for his twelve bread. Distributing
words of hope and deep love,
open your arms and embrace the whole world.”
The Spirit said, “Look, I saw the linen
hovering over supper. And the bread, and the wine,
and thousands of outstretched hands.
And the ends of the table were fading
in mists. And in steps, without being called,
suffering figures saw themselves seated.”
The Spirit said: “Look! the blue of the sky
she envelops the immense supper with her veil.
Flowing the water of life in profusion,
and no dish was spread out in vain.
Everyone lies down on the soft wheat field.
There is no hunger. There is no empty seat.”
***
about Easter
Novalis poem – Friedrich von Hardenberg
I say that He lives, to everyone,
and who was resurrected,
and that with us and forever
hovering He stayed.
I say, and everyone will say too
to your companions
that soon everywhere will be born
new kingdom of heaven.
Faced with a new way of feeling,
the world reappears;
and the new life in us to rise again
from his hand it comes down.
I see the terror of death plunge
at the bottom of the dark sea
and everyone is now contemplating
calmly your future.
The dark path He opened
to the sky it's going,
and whoever their advice ever listened
arrives at the Father's house.
Now, seeing someone dear die,
we suffer without fear.
Knowing that the reunion is granted
ease that pain.
With much more fervor we will act
in the simplest of deeds,
because this seed will bloom
in much more beautiful fields.
He lives and with us he always remains
when we lack everything!
May this day be like a party for us
of renewing the world.
***
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron
poem adapted from the book of Exodus, chapter 12
You will sacrifice a lamb,
a white lamb without blemish,
and you shall dye the threshold of your doors with their blood.
You shall eat it with unleavened bread,
and having your loins girded,
sandals on his feet and a staff in his hand.
Ye shall eat the lamb in all haste:
it is the Lord's Passover.
So that night,
when I pass over to smite Egypt,
seeing the blood on your doors I will not allow
may the Destroyer enter your homes
to hurt you.
When you have arrived in the land that I will give you
as promised,
observe this rite forever.
It is the Passover sacrifice,
in honor of the LORD, who smote the Egyptians,
preserved your houses.
***
easter poem
poem by Albert Steffen, from the book “Wegzehrung”
The air oppresses and frightens, and the cold, and the darkness;
you can barely feel your own heart beating...
And so no comfort finds friends,
and shy, then, surround my tomb
and feel, from my breath, the air of death pass.
– O you, everything you have, speech, look,
and that you bring to me, the sepulcher devours,
insatiable suck from my grave now.
But before the sepulcher, behold, the Christ posted!
Look! How much light He is surrounded!
Notice the heat that radiates from him,
I ascended from your Nothingness to the All that is in it,
extend your hands towards him,
cross them close to your chest and: “I am!” then say.
And the heat and light, flowing into me, bloom,
and the last enemy - death - vanishes.
***
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