Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Unknown and the Unknowable



Andrei Jewell, cover for new album by Rhian Sheehan, Standing in Silence


"The further we go to the limits of the Universe, the more we situate the Ungraspable within ourselves. "

Olivier Debré, Space and Behaviour, 2000, trans Michael Tweed


Caspar David Friedrich, The Monk by the Sea, 1808-1810



Rhian Sheehan - My Absolution

6 comments:

billoo said...

jacky, hello :-)

the quote reminded me of Solaris for some reason. As if the search for contact with mystery eventually leads us back 'home'.

salaams,

b.

jacky bowring said...

Hi Billoo, yes Solaris encompasses the revelation - the impossibility of revelation, the enigma - perfectly ... The sublime incomprehensibility of the oceanic planet, and the perplexing uncanniness in the most intimate of settings.
cheers ... j...

pensum said...

i'm glad you found the translation of Debré, Jacky, i had been meaning to send you a copy. hope this finds you well...

jacky bowring said...

Yes thanks Michael - the translation is verrrry welcome, as are the others!
Best wishes ... j...

Roxana said...

hello, jacky. such a beautiful post, in its simplicity and large spaces of silence.
it reminds me of Novalis: 'We dream of journeys through the universe: is the universe not within us? ... The mysterious path leads inwards. Within us, or nowhere lies eternity and its worlds, the past and the future.'

jacky bowring said...

Thanks Roxana ... and the Novalis is perfect, which in turn triggers thoughts of Bachelard and his thoughts on 'intimate immensity', wherein he quotes Rilke: "The world is large, but in us it is as deep as the sea."
... j...