April 2, 2006: I return home after a dinner with Liza Leyla and Silvia Vainberg.
Liza is a poet from Belgium.
Silvia is from Argentina and a poet, painter, dancer, choreographer, teacher.
The 3 of us have been involved in the snake mural project, a community art project in the Cureghem area in Brussels.
I met Silvia again twice in the same week, once in the Bozar Fine Arts Center and once in my own street to which she moved to, so now we are neighbors to my own surprise and delight.
She gave me this new edition today: a book composed of 2 of her poetry editions and which was published in Argentina by an editor during a recent visit to her home country.
Pages 52
Size: 14,5 X 21 cm
Bilingual edition (Spanish/ French) "The rage of the sunflower" from 1990
Pages: 66 and Size: 16 X 23,5 cm
Bilingual edition (Spanish/ French)
from 1992
Pages: 76
Size: 14,5 X 20,5 cm
Illustration of the next book:
"The calligraphy of the spirit", which now exists also in an Italian translation.
It was after an exhibition of her paintings where I also discovered this book that our friendship started.
I translated some of her poems into Dutch, which made her say to Manuel Escobar (a common friend from Chile)
"Guido's dangerous, he knows what we say, even when we talk in Spanish"
It was with a lot of pleasure I made her remember these words today when we had coffee at her new flat in my street.
Pages: 52 ; Size: 21 X 20 cm; breath taking edition from 1994
From this book:
La paz en el silencio de la
sangre decrifa su perfeccion lunar.
Ya no estoy mas en los espejos.
which was translated by me (in Dutch) as:
De vrede in de stilte
van het bloed ontcijfert de volmaakte maan.
Nu al besta ik niet langer in de spiegels.
Okay, you narrow minded linguists, here's an approach in English:
Peace inside the silence
of blood deciphers its lunar perfection.
Now already I don't exist any longer in the mirrors.
This is me but in front of Silvia's contribution to the SNAKE MURALS in Cureghem. My own mural painting was next to hers. So we worked next to each other during weeks, which was quite an experience. The photo was shot by Denyse Roos, the girl friend of Baudhuin Simon, the mail artist who committed suicide March 9, 2006. A small tribute page has been published on my blog on life in Brussels. Please visit:
http://brusselsesjoekes.blogspot.com
Dedication from Silvia to me in her book
"The vertigo of celestial bodies"
I don't translate what she wrote because
1. None of your business
2. As cryptic as her own poetry
3. Just enjoy her handwriting
(GV)
