Lectio divina

Up in the Epirot mountains, I have been reading the Swedish poet Ingemar Leckius, and this is one of his most profound poems (in Swedish, and in English translation by John F. Deane).

But every time I read it, I start humming Blind Willie Johnson's "Nobody's Fault But Mine", as sung by Corina Hamilton:

"It's nobody's fault but mine,

Nobody's fault but mine.

If I don't read and my soul be lost,

Nobody's fault but mine".

Anyway, here is the Swedish poem that has been inspiring me the last few days, which I shall contemplate as I descend the Vikos Gorge shortly.

Lectio divina

by Ingemar Leckius

Varje dag őppnar han

den tusenåriga boken

det välbekanta berglandskapet

med den främmande vinden

som för honom från brant till brant

från insikt till insikt

ända tills tanke lämnar

det hösta redet

och han fortsätter att läsa

med slutna ögon.

From Ljus ab ljus/ Light from Light

Translated from the Swedish by John F. Deane

Dedalus, Dublin, 2000

Lectio divina

Every day he opens

the thousand-year-old book

that well-known mountain landscape

with the unfamiliar wind

that leads him from steep to steep

from insight to insight

until at last his thinking

quits the highest nest

and he continues reading

with his eyes closed

Translated by John F. Deane

(Lectio divina, Note: spiritual reading according to medieval monastic tradition)