"Water Night" first took my breath away when I heard it performed on "From the Top" by the highly aclaimed Norman North High School Chorale in Oklahoma. This translation of a Spanish poem, adapted by Eric Whitaker, is a beautifully evocotive, metaphorical piece formed in a series of vignets about the connection of the water to the soul, and the quest to find the innermost spirit in ourselves. Further interpretation reflects the experience of holding something difficult inside over a period of time, and finally letting it go to find peace.
"Water Night" is the inspiration for one of my upcoming paintings.
(Please press play. Feel free to read along with the lyrics below.)
Water Night
Night with the eyes of a horse that trembles in the night,
night with eyes of water in the field asleep
is in your eyes, a horse that trembles,
is in your eyes of secret water.
Eyes of shadow-water,
eyes of well-water,
eyes of dream-water.
Silence and solitude,
two little animals moon-led,
drink in your eyes,
drink in those waters.
If you open your eyes,
night opens, doors of musk,
the secret kingdom of the water opens
flowing from the center of night.
And if you close your eyes,
a river fills you from within,
flows forward, darkens you:
night brings its wetness to beaches in your soul.
Octavio Paz, 1914-1998
(Adapted by Eric Whitacre, Translation by Muriel Rukeyser)
**The original poem is "Agua Nocturna" by Octavio Paz. Peace is connected to a long tradition of "night" in visual art, poetry and music.
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