Nocturnal Sailing Poem by Mario Wirz

Nocturnal Sailing

Rating: 5.0


the wind in your dream
swells the curtains into a sail
tears asunder
all the things we have collected
in the fearful light of the bedside lamp
I search in vain for our life vests
high waves rise above your sleep
and toss the night onto the side of the moon
perhaps you'd rather be
the sole sailor
untroubled by my fears
this question too
I now cast overboard
cautiously descending into your dream
and following its course
the sea which I haven't questioned
all these years
imagines in our sleep
a new story

Anglo American translation by Renate Latimer

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Edward Kofi Louis 06 August 2017

In your dream! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

0 4 Reply
Lantz Pierre 06 August 2017

This poem inhabits the world of the wide-awake writer much more than it does the world of sleep and dreams. The possibilities for invention that he uses here are rather tame, as if he were looking up from his while writing to attempt to re-imagine the real physical things there as if existing in a dream. None of the power and immediacy of dreams is here. The attempts at twisting the logic of the waking world are all too evident. The scaffolding is everywhere too present. Everything has a reason in this poem. It lacks the abrupt turns and non-linear experience of a dream. It is writing about a dream from the outside, but not even a real dream, it is simply a contrivance to use to say things he thinks about while awake and imbue them with some kind of romantic air. All in all it's kind of boring given what he could have created with the material.

0 1 Reply
Rajnish Manga 06 August 2017

Insightful and psych-analytical presentation. Thanks a lot. the wind in your dream / swells the curtains into a sail tears asunder / all the things we have collected I search in vain for our life vests

0 0 Reply
Seamus O Brian 06 August 2017

The extended mariner metaphor stretches along here, the interplay of sleep and dreams with sailing and oceans, with just a hint of some inter-relational drama. I enjoy the metaphor, but I sense that (although perhaps something is lost in the translation) the hints of something deeper remaining unexplored do not give enough substance to the superficial, albeit lyrically pleasant, extended metaphor.

1 0 Reply
Susan Williams 06 August 2017

Absolutely stunning. After just reading a half-dozen turgid poems, this was a delight. I see the Mad Hater has been here, disliking remark after remark.

1 0 Reply
Kumarmani Mahakul 06 August 2017

An imaginative write regarding dream. Beautiful poem shared.

0 2 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 06 August 2017

Sometimes dreams are one's reality... thanks for posting....

1 4 Reply
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