Prophets and poets
[ by Charles Cameron — poets on the geolocation and fulminology of prophets ]
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Sources:
Sylvia Plath, The Hanging Man Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America
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October 4th, 2015 at 1:08 am
Here’s one of Alexander Pushkin’s most famous poems, The Prophet:
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Tormented by a spiritual thirst,
I stumbled through a gloomy waste,
And there a six-winged seraph
Appeared before me at the crossroad.
With touch as light as slumber,
He laid his fingers on my eyes,
Which opened wide in prophecy
Just as a startled eagle’s might.
Upon my ears his touch then fell,
And they were filled with noise and clangs:
I heard the heavens shift on high,
The whispering of angels’ wings,
Sea monsters moving in the deep,
The growing grapevines in the vales.
And then he bent down towards my mouth,
My sinful tongue he ripped right out-
Its slander and its idle lies-
And with his bloody hand inserted
Between my still and lifeless lips
A cunning serpent’s forked tongue.
And with his sword he cleaved my breast
Removed my shaking heart,
And then he seized a blazing coal,
And placed it in my gaping breast.
Corpse-like I lay upon the sand
And then God’s voice called out to me:
“Arise, O Prophet, watch and hark,
Fulfill all my commands:
Go forth now over land and sea,
And with your word ignite men’s hearts.
October 4th, 2015 at 2:11 am
Thanks, Dave. Stunning, and much appreciated.
October 4th, 2015 at 6:21 pm
I found it appropriate to this post because it conjoins poetry (Pushkin being Russia’s greatest poet) and prophecy with its first person construction.
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It’s a lot more powerful in Russian, especially with its Church Slavonic constructions. It’s one of several of Pushkin’s poems I have committed to memory.