Mid-Week Music: Spiro - “I Am The Blaze On Every Hill”
Today I step lightly, probing with my toe for firm footing in the moment because the future is unclear.
The song “I Am The Blaze On Every Hill” fits today. Its melody and underlying structure shifts throughout--tangling and untangling, wandering and resolving. It is a splendid piece of music on its own (the entire album is excellent). But its title is a lovely rabbit-hole, being taken from a translation of what might be the oldest spoken Irish poem: “The Song of Amergin”
I’ve quoted a particular translation of the poem below, as it has the name of the song as written; there are many translations and they all make the hair stand on end:
I am a stag: of seven tines,
I am a flood: across a plain,
I am a wind: on a deep lake,
I am a tear: the Sun lets fall,
I am a hawk: above the cliff,
I am a thorn: beneath the nail,
I am a wonder: among flowers,
I am a wizard: who but I
Sets the cool head aflame with smoke?I am a spear: that roars for blood,
I am a salmon: in a pool,
I am a lure: from paradise,
I am a hill: where poets walk,
I am a boar: ruthless and red,
I am a breaker: threatening doom,
I am a tide: that drags to death,
I am an infant: who but I
Peeps from the unhewn dolmen, arch?I am the womb: of every holt,
I am the blaze: on every hill,
I am the queen: of every hive,
I am the shield: for every head,
I am the tomb: of every hope.
"Song of Amergin" translated by Robert Graves, from The White Goddess, Faber and Faber Limited
This is a declaration, a claim, an assertion. I’m sure it’s about the land of Ireland, but I like to say the words aloud as a song of my self. Like the other Song of Myself, I contain multitudes, and sitting with my father while he heals is a peaceful space to page through them and feel myself as the nexus of what came before me and the infinite possibilities of the future. In other words, I am present.
(Bonus: that last line is a kind of stoic flex, isn't it? I am the tomb of every hope? LOVE IT!)
I love you,
David
