Il Etait Difficile A Defaire Ce Noeud. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

See Poem Hunter/ Gerard M. Hopkins/ poems/ 24/80 for the original.
Hopkins analyses the complexity of looking at a rainbow in the sky in this densely-reasoned poem. The rainbow is there all right, but only in the thought of him who sees it. Can the rainbow have an independent existence if no one sees it. Hopkins owes this thought to the tradition of idealist philosophy, mainly in Germany.
If many people see a waterfall together, they will each see it in a slightly different way. Again it needs the human eye or thought to make the waterfall real, and 'The sun on falling waters writes the text'. It is a thought that Hopkins, who is known mainly for religious poems, actually wrote better about everyday, worldly things. It has taken me many years to see this.