Also Thule

Also Thule

John Bjarne Grover

TEQ #296
Exodus 13:13 וכל-פטר חמר תפדה בשה ואם-לא תפדה וערפתו וכל בכור אדם בבניך תפדה

Also Thule, when I visited a long man,
an identical radio.
Yes, you think so.

This one-word morning
on rules - there is always a happiness.

So when I came to Östen-Björnen,
I reached the bottom, and then I felt a shiver.

I go through the things again.
After the flood, I took the tree.

From my 'TEQ' = 'The Endmorgan Quartet', the fifth book "Yes, there is no need for any such attraction". Poems 295 and 296 share the hebrew fragment from Exodus 13:13 - the present poem is the second of the two.

The Holy Bible, New International Version, International Bible Society 1984 translates Exodus 13.13: "Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons".

Source for the hebrew parallel text is Biblia Hebraica, Hooght/Hahn, Lipsiae 1839.

The fifth book of TEQ exists also in a nearly identical 'Sonnet' version - differing mainly in linebreaks - given in chapter 19 of volume 3 of my 'collected works' - in parallel with sonnets of Rilke and Shakespeare. The above poem is then #9 in parallel with Rilke's Orpheus sonnets part 1 sonnet 16 ("Du, mein Freund, bist einsam, weil...") and Shakespeare's Sonnet 25 ("Let those who are in favour with their stars"). This alternative version is the following:

Also Thule, when
I visited a long man,
an identical radio.
Yes, you think so.

This one-word morning
on rules - there is
always a happiness.
So when I came to Östen-Björnen

I reached the bottom,
and then
I felt a shiver.

I go through the things again.
After the flood,
I took the tree.

In the original 1999 edition of 'Birds to Saladin' these two versions were in parts 2 and 5 - and then this 'sonnet' version was aligned not with Exodus 13:13 but with Exodus 13:12

Sources:

Biblia Hebraica, Hooght/Hahn, Lipsiae 1839.
Rilke, Rainer Maria: Die Sonette an Orpheus. Insel, Leipzig 1923.
Shakspere, William: The sonnets. Ed. Dowden, Edw. London 1881.

Original page