This the world the small the great, wrote the famous Nobel Prize poetry winner Odysseus Elytis in his
most recognized book Axion Esti (it is worthy…it is valuable) in which he
celebrates the birth of the world as we know it. Elytis creates eloquent images
to describe life in its various expressions and manifestations and Eric Ponty
does the same in his short book The Blue Whale: he presents the birth of Earth
as a small spec of the cosmos and yet as a panorama of lifeforms from the
infinitesimal to the gigantic as the great mammal, the whale.
In the eyes of
Eric Ponty the world’s lifeforms come into being one by one and as they appear
from the great pneumatic realm into the light they impose their shapes and
tastes upon the earth’s schisms and crevasses, its plains and snow-covered
mountain peaks; their first and primal concern was to impress upon the eyes of
the observing man their stature and their methods of survival. First the whales
singing their songs as they travelled from north to south and taught their
calves the way of life until one day the whale conceived a world full of other
beings which its thoughtful mind started creating.
And the clouds
appeared and the winds, and the birds upon the sky and the roots of trees and
bulbs in the earth and the animals walking on earth and in the trenches and
plains of earth; and the little islands and the forests and the sand dunes and
the rivers singing their happiness. The world slowly comes into being each life
form having its own method of existence and method of sustainance. The whale’s
song brought forth life from each and every schism of soil and from each and
every drop of the ocean water, each form occupying its space and thus
completing the panorama of existence.
Then a boy appeared,
a lone boy who had the winds and the birds and the flowers as friends and
companions. And in awe he looked at all the lifeforms around him and he learned
to greet them and live with them in harmony with everyone around him. And later
on, as the boy grew a little he tried to learn his lesson from the little and
gigantic forms around him: he talked to them in the boys’ tongue and he begged of
them to learn and to accept each lifeform on earth as his brother and companion;
and in return the boy promised to preserve and uphold the unwritten rules of
existence which relied upon mutual respect and appreciation for each and every
one of the earth’s inhabitants.
And they all
lived in harmony until one day the blue whale sent to him an eagle who not only
taught him wise things about life but also gave him wings to fly from island to
island and enjoy the sights of things small and large.
THE BLUE WHALE
is an excellent read for every young person and Eric deserves congratulations
for creating this beautiful modern-day fairy tale which deserves to be taught
to every boy and girl of young school age.
[~Manolis Aligizakis, poet,
author, translator. Manolis was born on the island of Crete in 1947. Educated
in Greece (BA in Political Sciences, Panteion Supreme School of Athens) he
served in the armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973,
after which he worked in several different jobs. He attended Simon Fraser
University for a year, taking English Literature in a non-degree program. He
has written three novels, a number of collections of poetry, which are slowly
appearing as published works, various articles and short stories in Greek as
well as in English. After working as an iron worker, train laborer, taxi
driver, and stock broker, he now lives in White Rock where he spends his time
writing, gardening, and traveling. Towards the end of 2006 he founded Libros
Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, British
Columbia, with the goal of publishing literary books most other companies
reject, thus giving voice to people who are not listened to by conventional
publishers.]
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário