Sphere

Glenn Wallis

A transmutilation*

Come, and consider carefully what I say,
Whether my words’ wide witness anywhere fails
A single thing that reveals this simple All.
Behold the sun, its warmth, the bright-diffused.
See the stars, forever steeped in liquid heat
and streaming radiance.
Feel, too, the rain, obscure and cold and dark.
And smell the breathing soil that stains your feet.
Hungry fledglings shrieking in an oak — listen!
And note how from earth streams forth
the green and firm.
And all, through fury, are split to unlike shapes.
And each, through love, draws near and yearns
One for the other.
For from the All has blossomed all that was or is
or ever will be —
Trees, beasts, the dreams of men, the ache of women.
Fears of oblivion steeping in the deep,
Hope of paradise.
For this is all,
All in all —
Coursing like Lethe through time, yet
Each, through the another,
Brings forth a new face.

Time’s bloody fingers weave tapestries of grace.
All is by varied merging and enduring change.

____________________

* A transmutilation is a reimagined version of a text. Typically, the text is so vastly altered as virtually to comprise an original piece. But the inspiration of the text — perhaps a single figure, a line, the tone, a vision — is so catalyzing that the ur-text, the root text, the genealogical matrix must be encoded in the new form. In this sense, a transmutilation is similar to an idiosyncratic musical interpretation. (Here is an example of the Rolling Stones’ “Play With Fire” drastically interpreted by Ruin. Note that the lyrics, tempo and rhythm, attack, and atmosphere are completely different from the original; yet the song unmistakingly retains the original musical structure. I’d like to call such a rendition a “transmutilation.”) In the case of “Sphere,” the catalyst comes from a rough fragment by Empedocles, translated from the Greek by W. E. Leonard as follows. I retained several of the beautiful lines:

But come, and to my words foresaid look well, if their wide witness anywhere forgot aught that behooves the elemental forms: behold the Sun, the warm, the bright-diffused; behold the eternal Stars, forever steeped in liquid heat and glowing radiance; see also the Rain, obscure and cold and dark, and how from Earth streams forth the Green and Firm. and all through Wrath are split to shapes diverse; and each through Love draws near and yearns for each. for from these elements hath budded all that was or is or evermore shall be-all trees, and men and women, beasts and birds, and fishes nourished in deep waters, aye, the long-lived gods, in honors excellent. For these are all, and, as they course along through one another, they take new faces all, by varied mingling and enduring change.

Glenn Wallis

Image: “Cube of Spheres,” Charles Gilchrist.