#14. WOLF / LLOP
Is it possible to walk in the streets as we were in a forest? / És possible caminar pel carrer com si ens moguéssim pel bosc?
A WOLF
Grey and furtive in the final twilight,
he lopes by, leaving his spoor along the bank
of this nameless river that has quenched the thirst
of his throat, these waters that repeats no stars.
Tonight, the wolf is a shade who runs alone
and searches for his mate and feels cold.
He is the last wolf in all of Angle-land.
Odin and Thor know him. In a commanding
house of stone a king has made up his mind
to put an end to wolves. The powerful
blade of your death has already been forged.
Saxon wolf, your seed has come to nothing.
To be cruel isn't enough. You are the last.
A thousand years will pass and an old man
will dream of you in America. What use
can that future dream possibly be to you?
Tonight the men who followed through the woods
the spoor you left are closing in on you,
grey and furtive in the final twilight.
Jorge Luis Borges
WOLF
A wolf’s howl is a powerful force, we became paralyzed by the fear to be eaten alive and, at the same time, we are eager to recover the animal instinct that we carry deep inside. Lycanthropes have shaped the European collective imaginary for hundreds of years. Wolves mix divergent energies: ferocity and protection, light and darkness, dismemberment and birth. In the Nordic mythology, wolf Fenris represents the chaotic devouring reverse of the cosmic order. A wolf can be a symbol of an animal-guide that leads human beings through the darkness, its high ocular sensitivity to see in the middle of the night is the origin of the association with light. The Capitoline Wolf, a she-wolf that raised Romulus and Remus, incarnates the spirit of an animal as a protective guardian. In ancient Egypt and in the Roman empire the wolf was an image of courage. To dare to walk at night into the forest without the phone’s blue light should be a medical prescription, we have a wolf inside our body and it can be liberating to led the wolf express his force, although it might be terrifying.
If the desert was transfigured into a forest in the Middle Ages without losing its essential properties, the forest could became a street in the 21st century. Is it possible to walk the streets as if we were moving through a forest? Of course. If we accept that reality is built in our heads, although the street doesn’t have the electricity that flows among trees, it has different stimuli. We just have to go out to observe the stimuli with attention, to hunt them, to run the streets like the first time, astonished.
Mapa secreto del bosque de Jordi Soler
UN LOBO
Furtivo y gris en la penumbra última,
va dejando sus rastros en la margen
de este río sin nombre que ha saciado
la sed de su garganta y cuyas aguas
no repiten estrellas. Esta noche,
el lobo es una sombra que está sola
y que busca a la hembra y siente frío.
Es el último lobo de Inglaterra.
Odín y Thor lo saben. En su alta
casa de piedra un rey ha decidido
acabar con los lobos. Ya forjado
ha sido el fuerte hierro de tu muerte.
Lobo sajón, has engendrado en vano.
No basta ser cruel. Eres el último.
Mil años pasarán y un hombre viejo
te soñará en América. De nada
puede servirte ese futuro sueño.
Hoy te cercan los hombres que siguieron
por la selva los rastros que dejaste,
furtivo y gris en la penumbra última.
Jorge Luis Borges
LLOP
L'udol d'un llop és poderós, el temor de ser devorats ens paralitza i, a la vegada, dispara l'anhel per retrobar l'instint animal que portem dins. Els licantrops formen part de l’imaginari col·lectiu europeu des de fa segles. Els llops fusionen energies divergents: ferocitat i protecció, llum i foscor, desmembrament i naixement. A la mitologia nòrdica, el llop monstruós Fenris encarna el revers necessari de l’ordre còsmic en forma de caos devorador. L’alta sensibilitat ocular per veure-hi de nit és l’origen de l’associació amb la llum, els llops solen representar a l’animal-guia que condueix l’ésser humà enmig de la foscor. La lloba Luperca que cuida de Ròmul i Rem encarna l’esperit de l’animal com a guardià protector. Pels egipcis i els romans el llop és un símbol del coratge. Atrevir-nos a caminar pel bosc de nit sense la llum blava del mòbil és una bona recepta mèdica, portem un llop a dins i pot ser alliberador deixar que s’expressi encara que impliqui passar una mica de por.
Així com durant l’Edat Mitjana el desert es va transfigurar en el bosc sense perdre les seves propietats essencials, el bosc podria transformar-se, en el segle XXI, en el carrer. És possible caminar pel carrer com si ens moguéssim pel bosc? Per descomptat. Si acceptem que absolutament tot passa dins del nostre cap, i encara que al carrer no hi hagi l’electricitat que circula entre els arbres, els estímuls seran diferents; només cal sortir a observar-los amb atenció, a caçar-los, a recórrer el carrer com si ho féssim per primer cop, bocabadats.
Mapa secreto del bosque de Jordi Soler