Σήμερα ξεκινά το ταξίδι της επιστροφής. Ήθελα να γράψω μια κατακλείδα για όλα όσα έζησα τους τελευταίους 9 μήνες, όλα όσα συνειδητοποίησα και έμαθα. Να μιλήσω λίγο για τις τελευταίες μου μέρες στο δρόμο, για τα ανάμικτα συναισθήματα, και για τον καιρό (άσχετο, αλλά χθες το βράδυ έκανε ένα βρωμόκρυο... με το ζόρι κοιμήθηκα, ανάθεμά τον.).
Μέσα στο ταξίδι όμως είχα την τύχη να διαβάσω έναν Νιγηριανό συγγραφέα, τον Ben Okri, και στο βιβλίο του tales of Freedom, έπεσα πάνω στην τελευταία του μικρή ιστορία, που πιστεύω ότι αποτυπώνει υπέροχα το ταξίδι. Οπότε αποφάσισα να μην το παίξω μεγάλος συγγραφέας αλλά να αφήσω τον ίδιο, μέσα από την δική του ιστορία να πει και τη δική μου. Με έναν τρόπο μοναδικό που εγώ δεν έχω την ικανότητα να το κάνω.
Κάθε του λέξη, για μένα τουλάχιστον, έχει νόημα και ουσία.
Μέσα στο ταξίδι όμως είχα την τύχη να διαβάσω έναν Νιγηριανό συγγραφέα, τον Ben Okri, και στο βιβλίο του tales of Freedom, έπεσα πάνω στην τελευταία του μικρή ιστορία, που πιστεύω ότι αποτυπώνει υπέροχα το ταξίδι. Οπότε αποφάσισα να μην το παίξω μεγάλος συγγραφέας αλλά να αφήσω τον ίδιο, μέσα από την δική του ιστορία να πει και τη δική μου. Με έναν τρόπο μοναδικό που εγώ δεν έχω την ικανότητα να το κάνω.
Κάθε του λέξη, για μένα τουλάχιστον, έχει νόημα και ουσία.
You arrive dirty and
hungry. You are covered in grime. You have come from beyond the
snowline. It has been an epic journey.
You have travelled through
forests, through innumerable cities and villages, barely stopping,
travelling mostly on foot, with no change of clothes.
You have come through
regions where you were unfamiliar with the language and the customs.
You have slept at roadsides, in strange inns. You have travelled
alone, bearing a message which only you can carry.
How long have you been
travelling? You don't know. Maybe your whole life.
You forego pleasures on
the way. It's beenhard enough just keeping on the journey. You have
travelled nights without sleeping, days without eating. Your
destination is your rest and your food. Your mission is to arrive at
the court, deliver the message, and then to be free.
Many countries you have
crossed, wolves you have battled, hard men you have transcended,
cunning men you have eluded, seducing women you have slithered away
from.
Youth deserted you in the
virgin forests; and yet you travelled with youth, and never lost it.
Youth remains in you, in your freedom and the simplicity of your
spirit. Encased in the dirt of the road is your preserved freshness.
2
The last part
of the journey was the worst. Getting closer was also getting
farther. It is easier to get lost within sight of the palace. It is
easier to feel one has arrived when one sees the battlements and
turrets, the flags and banners of the castle. Then in renewed hope
and exultation one hurries. And yet the way is still far. Distances
are deceptive. Hope makes all things near, and so can prove
treacherous.
You kept your
eyes on the road. You nearly got lost in the village. You were
tempted to stay the night, to divulge your destination to an old
woman, and thus be given conflicting or self-serving advice. But you
kept it to yourself. You imagined you were still at the beginning of
your journey. You were conscious that it was still full of perils,
and that you still had a long way to go.
Your whole life
had been the journey. If you stopped to think now, or confess
despair, who knows what snares of your own making you would fall
into. So you staked your life on the jouney. The journey was your
life, your life on the road. You might have died on it, but you were
vigilant. You took each moment as the whole. That's what you did.
3
And then you
found you arrived. You were in the court. You were in the place. In
the grime and dirt of the journey the message was divested of you. It
was painless. You didn't even know what it was. The message was on
you. The message was in your dirt, or your unwashed body, in your
weary but alive spirit. The message was in your eyes. It was in your
arrival, in your dreams, in your memory. It was in all you had
bought, and the nothing that you had brought.
The message was
divested of you. It was shorn off you, and you were light. You were
cleaned up of your message. You were scrubbed and shaved of it,
bathed and washed of it. The filthy clothes were taken off you, and
you were given new ones that shone like light.
4
There had been
a mysterious ceremony acknowledging the heroic nature of your
journey. But the true gift of it was in your spirit, your inner
liberation. There was a new eternal light in you.
Fresh, young,
and free, you wander the streets of the kingdom. You have the sense
of beign in a new world, a luminous world. You are living and
enchanted life in the kingdom.
You have set
out early and had arrived sooner that you thought. You have a whole
life ahead of you. And so here you are, a youth with a spirit of
shining gold, rih beyond measure in the lightness of your being.
Everything is before you. Your main quest and journey is over,
because you had begun early and arrived early. Now you have it all to
live, in peerless freedom. What luck! No need to fret, but just to
live, now, the life you want.
Like a youth
arrived in a great city, with hope in his heart, looking to make his
fortune and find his true love, in the happiest and most innocent
days of his life, like such youth you wander lightly through the
streets of the mysterious kingdom. The pastel sky is touched with
blue, and there is dawn sunlight.
Με αυτό το τελευταίο κείμενο κλείνω εδώ τις όποιες διηγήσεις μου. Όλα τα υπόλοιπα θα τα πούμε από κοντά. Φιλιά σε όλους.
