working on the Pamplona paper (Verraeumlichung der Zeit, yes) I remembered, once again, a piece of graffiti I saw in the Catalonian village of La Riba.
On the long-distance-cum-commuter train from Lleida to Barcelona, (after the miles I had crossed just the other night sleeping and the same stretch yesterday morning, this time watching a group of Spanish mountaineers, and a Spanish-cum-English documentary on falconry) the train went into a mountainous region where sudden turns on the route revealed beautiful valleys and small villages. I was working, despite all this, on my paper for Nijmegen, and at one point I lifted my head to read the following words, written in Arabic script, at the train station- which consisted, for all I could see, of white washed walls placed at all the right angles.
Shouf wa Usqut. Watch and Keep Silent.
how despairing of the human spirit this enigma sounds these days of watching children being pulled from under fallen buildings. But at the time, it had felt very patronizing in another way. "Watch this beauty and don't speak a word. Don't turn it into one of your lousy poems"
But maybe it is a warning for today as well. Shouf wa Usqut. Don't turn it into one of your lousy poems.
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