7/13 「無題」
ヴィスビー
アルメダールを出て北に伸びる道
輪壁沿いの海岸線を臨む木陰のベンチから
7/13 "Untitled"
Visby
The road stretching north out of Almedalen
From the tree-shaded benches that face the shoreline where it runs along the curving walls1
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7/13
ブットランド島の隣、フォーレ島にいる。島の北端では長い年月をかけて海に削り出された石灰岩が、奇妙な形のオブジェになって海岸に鎮座している。
パレードという詩について。
誰にも見えないのに、誰もが待ってる。誰も見たことが無いのに、話をすると顔を見せる。
気分によって暖かくもなり、冷たくも成る。そして心臓を伝って、肺から登ってきて、気管を通って、口から落ちる。
声のことだよ。その空気の振動にこそ、心は宿る。
神様について。
良い作品の中には神様が宿る。
何かものを作る度に、見えない何かに動かされているような錯覚を覚える。
それはもしかすると虚無感だったり、悲しさだったり、喜びだったりの感情や感傷の類いが筆を進めているだけなのかもしれない。でも僕はそれを神様の所為だと考える。
心臓から指先を伝って、この長方形の紙に下りていく。その瞬間が僕は好きだった。
君もきっとそう思うだろう。
ただ一つ、勘違いしちゃいけないのは、神様は作品に宿るわけであって、僕たち人間に宿っているわけじゃない。そう思うのは創作家の傲慢だ。
僕はオスカーワイルドに倣う芸術至上主義だからね。
創作なんてのは一種の宗教なんだ。僕の言葉の中にいつも君がいるのと全く同じだよ。
インクも少なくなってきている。騙し騙し使わないと。
7/13
I'm on the island of Fårö, right next to the island of Gotland. Over long months and years, the limestone at the island's far northern coast has been whittled down by the ocean; it's become a series of strange objets d'art planted all along the beach.2
About the song called "Parade":
Nobody can see it, but everyone has it. Nobody has ever seen it, but it shows its face whenever you speak.
Depending on how you're feeling, it can be warm, and it can also be cold. And lastly: it runs along the heart, rises up from the lungs, passes through the windpipe, and falls from the mouth.
It's a voice. It is precisely within that vibration of the air that the soul resides.
About God:
God dwells within good works of art.
Whenever I make anything, I have this illusory sense that something else is moving me.
Perhaps it's only some type of emotion or sentiment that's driving my pen along - emptiness, or sadness, or joy. But for my part, I think that it's God's doing.
It runs from my heart to my fingertips, and descends onto this rectangle of paper. I used to enjoy that moment.
I'm sure you enjoy it too.
But there's one thing to be careful of - God may dwell within works of art, but does not dwell within us human beings. Thinking otherwise is just arrogance on the part of the creator.
I am, after all, emulating Oscar Wilde, as a believer in the supremacy of art.3
Creation as such is a type of religion. It is precisely the same as the way that you are always present within my words.
I've begun to run low on ink. I'll have to coax what I can out of what I have left.
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<--- [4/24] Songwriting and Coffee (詩書きとコーヒー)
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1 Visby is a city on the island of Gotland, off the southeastern coast of Sweden. Almedalen is a seaside park located in Visby; the precise spot being described here is near the Fiskarporten (Fisherman's Gate), alongside the Visby town wall. The album's supplemental materials feature a photograph taken in this location.
2 The term for these features is "rauk". The area being described here is likely the Langhammars nature reserve.
3 The ideology being cited here is Wilde's own particular incarnation of Aestheticism.