I’m writing here much more regularly and I’m not sure what that says about how I’m living my life. I think I’m getting into my blogging stride.
I got sidetracked by a second-hand book shop on Saturday and bought an Ibsen play – Peer Gynt. It’s a folk tale of a scamp called Peer (pronounced Pair) who tells lots of stories and treats people rather badly but underneath he’s vulnerable and lost. He is driven from his country of Norway after misadventures with men, women and trolls. There’s a theme running through of travelling, finding your place and the problems of alcohol (it gives Peer and others courage but a lot of the problems have drink involved in some way). I’m halfway through so far.
Here’s an excerpt I like:
The dung-beetle pushes his ball through the sand,
the snail comes creeping out of his shell.
Morning! It touches the world with gold!
How curious is the remarkable power
that Nature bestows on the light of day -
one feels so safe, one’s courage increases,
one is ready, if need be, to fight with a bull!
How still it all is! Ah, these rural delights -
it’s odd that I’ve always despised them till now!
To think men should shut themselves up in great cities
only to have themselves plagued by the mob.
Just look at the lizards – they bask in the sun
and scuttle about with no worries at all.
How well they obey the Creator’s behest,
each fulfilling his special immutable role.
They are themselves, through thick and through thin -
themselves, as they were at his first order ‘Be!’
Here’s a toad! Hidden deep in a block of sandstone -
completely immured – just his head peeping out
as if through a window. And there he sits watching
the world… and he is to himself – enough!
