28 december 2025

28 december 2025

John Bjarne Grover

Cornelis Vreeswijk has a poem called 'Personliga Person' (= 'personal Person') which goes in quite close parallel with Francesco Mazzola's 'Pala di Bardi' - the masterwork of 1521 which seems to have a very close parallel in the 1531 Madonna of Guadalupe who left an imprint on the visionary Juan Diego's 'tilma' (coat) showing herself. It is perhaps not a coincidence that her coat/dress on the image thereby corresponds to the coat/tilma on which the image was imprinted by what is assumed to be 'divine revelation'. Notice the similarities between the two dresses with the curly pattern - as well as the 'beak of bird' and other aspects:

(Source)

(Source)

Vreeswijk also makes specific mention of this coat/dress and the curls. In this recording he refers to Person's daughter as 'vidrig' = 'discusting' but in other recordings the word is 'grinig' = 'grumpy' - such as this live performance from 1981 and also in a live performance from 1986 not long before his death - in both these live performances he underscores the word 'grinig' = 'grumpy' very strongly. It is true that the woman in yellow dress on Mazzola's artwork is not laughing - and maybe Vreeswijk has the pragmatics of the flesh after wedding in mind - which means the same as for the 'Cecilia Lind' theme - that the soul searches for God and therefore searches for sex but oh how disappointing that is - in light of the original intention. Another important word is särk = a long undergarment or robe - it is translated 'shirt' which is a little imprecise.

Here is the original swedish text and here it is translated with google.translator.com. I reproduce both these here - adding numbers to the stanzas and adjusting little:

Cornelis Vreeswijk
Personliga Person

1.
Personliga Person satt en morgon vid frukostbordet
Och läste i morgonbladet att det senaste lustmordet
Bjöd på en mängd pikanta detaljer, mördarn hade använt vissa attiraljer
Dessa nämdes i bladet, och det var ju bra, det

2.
Personliga Persons fru och hans vidriga dotter
De sutto i sina särkar ännu och sina papiljotter
Persson såg på dem med föga sympati och i sitt stilla sinne tänkte Person, "Tvi"
Fast han ingenting sade, och det var ju bra, det

3.
Personliga Person far med bussen som alla andra
I överrock och med handskar och hatt låter han sina tankar vandra
Och tankarna far precis som de vill och ingen hade kunna gissa sig till
Vad slags tankar han hade, och det var ju bra, det

4.
Personliga Person far mot hemmet per tunnelbana
En trettiosjua brännevin har han med sig av gammal vana
Sen spöar han sin fru med dunder och med brak och somnar som ett svin och vaknar som ett vrak
Men så, roligt det var det, och det var ju bra, det

5.
Personliga Person står i telefonkatalogen
Och om du de rätta siffrorna slår så svarar han glad i hågen
Javisst finns det många Persöner men Personliga Person finns det bara en
Och det råkar va jag det, och det var ju bra det

Cornelis Vreeswijk
Personal Person

1.
Personal Person sat at the breakfast table one morning
And read in the morning paper that the latest murder of pleasure
Included a number of piquant details, the murderer had used certain paraphernalia
These were mentioned in the paper, and that was a good thing, that

2.
Personal Person's wife and his discusting daughter
They were still sitting in their shirts and curlers
Persson looked at them with little sympathy and in his quiet mind thought Person, "Two"
Although he said nothing, and that was a good thing, that

3.
Personal Person takes the bus like everyone else
In an overcoat and with gloves and a hat, he lets his thoughts wander
And his thoughts go exactly as they please and no one could have guessed
What kind of thoughts he had, and that was a good thing, that

4.
Personal Person goes home by subway
He has a thirty-seven brandy with him out of old habit
Then he whips his wife with thunder and with crash and falls asleep like a pig and wakes up like a wreck
But so, fun it was, and it was good, that

5.
Personal Person is in the phone book
And if you dial the right numbers he answers happily in his mind
Yes, there are many Persons but there is only one Personal Person
And that happens to be me, and it was good that

For the comparison with Mazzola's 'Pala di Bardi' - the 'Person' is probably the 'potion' (the glass) which also is the face in the pillar is the 'person' mask - a transform of the glass of potion with the curly worms around - hence a 'potional potion' which is Vreeswijk's 'Personliga Person'. (The 'subway' of stanza 4 is the niche under the row of Mazzola - etc). Vreeswijk's 5 stanzas are likely aspects of the 5 persons on Mazzola's artwork:

Stanza 1 = the Madonna on the pillar
Stanza 2 = the leftmost woman in the yellow dress with the curly flower pattern
Stanza 3 = the man on the right
Stanza 4 = the woman who holds the potion = '37' brandy
Stanza 5 = Christ putting his ring (= tele-phone cata-logue) onto her hand/finger = the 'clock' in the lower margin

The story is the tele-phone cata-LOG = the plank of Mazzola = the LOG going down ('kata' = 'down' in greek) - this is likely to be the timber of the cross of Christ, the passion of the clock.

As I have pointed out earlier, this artwork of Mazzola has a close counterpart in my 'The Endmorgan Quartet #1594' which is poem #74 in TEQ book 16:

TEQ #1594
74 אמר רב אשי

Timberleave

Came to make the deadfall of the great nazi.
Oh definitely - they've seen him and came to jerk off the Leff.
These allow for the security test.
I would have liked the person

but I've also said something
that's over 60 year.
Some people stand and be usening on their soul.
The røver ronked the line before she missed.

'I would have liked the person' = Christ reaching for her hand - which is the 'potion'? It is clear that my poem is about the falling timber with its annual rings (over 60 years?).

29/12-2025: