a library's wormholes, its infinite doors

Apr 11, 2010 09:57

This week is National Library Week in the U.S. If you are a fan of libraries, please consider celebrating by visiting your favourite local library and/or telling a librarian you think they're awesome. :)

For today, a library poem commissioned by the National Library of Wales in honour of their [centennial celebrations] in 2007. In Welsh and English!

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Ie, silffoedd o lyfrau, ond mae hon yn ardd
gyda hadau syniadau’n dianc fel chwyn
os nad yw ceidwad y llyfrau’n llym,
yn eu cloi’n eu celloedd, fel bo DNA
ein gwyddorau’n egino. Yna, fel gwenyn

bydd darllenwyr aflonydd yn cywain paill
o siambrau petalau ysgarlad fel serch.
Mae rhai delweddau’n blodeuo prin un
waith bob canrif. Dyma ryw
llyfryddiaeth. Dyma arch

ein breuddwydion. Dyma benglog Brân -
sgrin cyfrifiadur newydd sbon -
yn gwrando’n astud ar drydar pur
drudwy digidol trwy wifrau cân,
yn dathlu entrychion y foment hon.

*

We call, as one lighthouse hails another
by sight, through the electronic dark.
Digital seeds stir in our nation’s ark.
Hidden most safely is the DNA
of dreams in vellum, which the warble fly
has tasted, so knows where all our bodies lie.

Ideas’ spores are spread by the eyes
of greedy readers who, randy as bees,
nudge the dusty interstices
of images until they pollinate
towering pistils. Some metaphors bloom
only once a century in tradition’s gloom.

Some books, like poodles, are sent to be groomed
in the binding department, till their spines
are tongues again and can speak their mind.
The hardest place to be is here,
we need to imagine it and require
a library’s wormholes, its infinite doors.

~ "Canmlwyddiant Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru"/"Centenary Greetings from The National Library of Wales" by Gwyneth Lewis

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This entry was originally posted at http://winkingstar.dreamwidth.org/268615.html.

libraries, languages, librarians, poetry month

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