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| FALL OF ICARUS - BREUGHEL |
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well, they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
A terribly sad poem, showing us how enured so many have become to "boys falling out of the sky." It's probably my favorite myth, always has been, but the implications now take on a more ominous tone, as do the metaphors.
ReplyDeleteYes it is sad for all times, Teresa. I always remember the famous lines by Ovid (below) which sound sad and heart rending to read even if you don't know Latin. Daedalus, who is flying above Icarus has just seem him fall. (my translation).
Delete..at pater infelix, nec iam pater, "Icare," dixit,
"Icare," dixit "ubi es? qua te regione requiram?"
"Icare" dicebat: pennas aspexit in undis
devovitque suas artes corpusque sepulcro
condidit, et tellus a nomine dicta sepulti.
And his distressed father, no longer a father, called out
'Icarus. Where are you? Where can I find you?
Icarus!' Then he spied the wings among the waves
He cursed his skill and carried the boys' body to it's tomb.
The land is named after his burial place.
Beautiful and so very poignant. Thank you for including this. You are so right. It is heartrending to read the Latin, knowing the story.
ReplyDelete