Poetic-Verses from ATHANASE
Woman Holding A Balance (English)
to Peter de Hooch
'Nihil enim visibilium rerum corporaliumque est, ut arbitror, quod non incorporale quid et intelligibile significet.'
(There does not exist, in my opinion, anything visible and corporeal which does not signify something incorporeal and intelligible.)
John Scotus Erigena, De divisione naturae
In this silent spinning, these spinning silences,
his sublime brush works to turn light
into impalpable grace, into flesh, into matter
only spirit can touch, and only the entranced see!
And this lucent orange, like a benevolent god made flesh
imposing its frail clear-sightedness on the anchorless soul,
bestowing on these fragile pearls in a noble flash of light,
a sense of purity, a form that fixes them for all time!
Lord, what does it mean, the unsullied peace
that covers objects in a lilting caress,
and that painting of the cosmos behind her, its trembling shadow
soothing the chaste whiteness of her pearly headdress?
The verdict of the scales, the omnipresent judgement,
the mystery that mysteries never reveal to Time!
Translated from the French of Athanase Vantchev de Thracy by Norton Hodges
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Woman Holding A Balance (English)
Woman Holding A Balance (English)
