Distractions
They come in all shapes and forms. Some I can ignore, others I cannot. Phone calls and text messages I do and WILL ignore sometimes when I’m in the middle of translating the pages that fit my mood of the night. But tonight I let myself be distracted. By these all too familiar lines in a translation material I was reading:
Whoever you are holding me now in hand,
Without one thing all will be useless,
I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,
I am not what you supposed, but far different.
I never thought I’d find Whitman’s words quoted in the first page of this author’s latest book, but there they were. And instantly thoughts and musings started flooding my mind. I knew I wouldn’t be productive tonight. I reached out for my copy of Leaves of Grass and immersed myself in the much-thumbed yellowing pages. And the walls came down. And the voices unheard. Line after line transported me as if by magic to prairie countries, to oceans, among the multitude, together and solitary, celebrating all and embracing all as part of me. Space, wind, and raging storms.
My one hour of madness and joy.
They come in all shapes and forms. Some I can ignore, others I cannot. Phone calls and text messages I do and WILL ignore sometimes when I’m in the middle of translating the pages that fit my mood of the night. But tonight I let myself be distracted. By these all too familiar lines in a translation material I was reading:
Whoever you are holding me now in hand,
Without one thing all will be useless,
I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,
I am not what you supposed, but far different.
I never thought I’d find Whitman’s words quoted in the first page of this author’s latest book, but there they were. And instantly thoughts and musings started flooding my mind. I knew I wouldn’t be productive tonight. I reached out for my copy of Leaves of Grass and immersed myself in the much-thumbed yellowing pages. And the walls came down. And the voices unheard. Line after line transported me as if by magic to prairie countries, to oceans, among the multitude, together and solitary, celebrating all and embracing all as part of me. Space, wind, and raging storms.
My one hour of madness and joy.
