so this is what forgetfulness renders...the opportunity to see this shot (even though i know it as one of the best photographs i've ever experienced) absolutely new again and again, to feel the wave of awe and wonder wash over me, that this world exists and that you somehow captured a piece of her here.
for me this is no different than your work of translation. you are translating the word heron for us from the ordinary language as the bird we expect to see, to the deeper language which instructs us what the heron actually is. a true translation, i think, taps into a deeper intimacy. yes, this must be so. true living is intimate living. to know true living one must forget the self, one must forget preconceptions, forget the wall of language and find one's way with eyes closed, intuiting and feeling, over the bridge.
i knew how wonderful this shot was. i have not stopped thinking about it since i saw it. but i am so pleasantly forgetful, unable to hold the full intimacy of anything, and so i came today and was again today undone.
erin: perhaps we can never know or touch the thing itself (heron, stone, body) but only translations of the thing -- since any way of knowing, seeing, touching (word, eye, hand) is already mediation, representation, image, already gap, already between ... is this a tragedy? is there any other hurt? ... certainly the word heron as i speak it can only be a (broken) translation of the word heron as you speak it -- but it is deeper than that, isn't it? is the heron itself a translation of the idea of heron?
we feel our way around the edges of this question, like a blind man looking for a coin in a drawer ...
Lovely image James! ;-)
ReplyDeleteLucia: thank you!
Delete.
so this is what forgetfulness renders...the opportunity to see this shot (even though i know it as one of the best photographs i've ever experienced) absolutely new again and again, to feel the wave of awe and wonder wash over me, that this world exists and that you somehow captured a piece of her here.
ReplyDeletefor me this is no different than your work of translation. you are translating the word heron for us from the ordinary language as the bird we expect to see, to the deeper language which instructs us what the heron actually is. a true translation, i think, taps into a deeper intimacy. yes, this must be so. true living is intimate living. to know true living one must forget the self, one must forget preconceptions, forget the wall of language and find one's way with eyes closed, intuiting and feeling, over the bridge.
i knew how wonderful this shot was. i have not stopped thinking about it since i saw it. but i am so pleasantly forgetful, unable to hold the full intimacy of anything, and so i came today and was again today undone.
xo
erin
erin: perhaps we can never know or touch the thing itself (heron, stone, body) but only translations of the thing -- since any way of knowing, seeing, touching (word, eye, hand) is already mediation, representation, image, already gap, already between ... is this a tragedy? is there any other hurt? ... certainly the word heron as i speak it can only be a (broken) translation of the word heron as you speak it -- but it is deeper than that, isn't it? is the heron itself a translation of the idea of heron?
Deletewe feel our way around the edges of this question, like a blind man looking for a coin in a drawer ...
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