Ergi La Mente Al Sole
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Turn your mind to the
sun
rash mortal.
the eye’s light has no
power
for it only sees what
happens.
Focus in that radian
centre
and seek to
contemplate the eternal light
Ergi La
Mente Al Sole
Luigi Rossi
– 1597-1653
 |
| Helianthus annuus August 11, 2014 |
A couple of days ago
on Saturday I atended the last concert of 2014 Vancouver Early Music Festival. The
concert was called Vanitas Vanitatum. I wrote about it here.
Today Monday I was ruminating
about the concert in particular as Rosemary and I attended the lecture (At UBC School of Music's Gessler Hall) of Dutch
harpsichord maker Ton Amir whose topic was the symbols behind the Dutch
paintings of the 17th century. The talk was called Memento Mori.
 |
| Alexandra Waterhouse-Hayward - Lillooet Sept 2012 |
One of the pieces on
Saturday was Luigi Rossi’s Ergi La Mente Al Sole (Turn your mind to the sun). It
was all about the sun and by the end how the sun is really in the shadow of
God. The line “turn your mind to the sun” made a connection in my mind. The
lowly but tall sunflower is called a girasol in Spanish. That translates to “turns
to the sun”. That (a blinding light of inspiration?) all led to what I write below.
One of those most
pleasant of annual pleasures happens when my oldest daughter, Alexandra arrives
in the spring from her home in Lillooet with several pots of tall sunflowers
(Helianthus annuus) which she grows from seed in her one acre property in that
place that every year happens to compete with Lytton as the hottest spot in Canada.
In fact today (I am writing this Monday night) it hit 37 Celsius in Lillooet.
There is not much sun
in our garden and one of the last refuges for it is on our back lane which we
have converted into a lane garden. Ale’s sunflowers are at their peak now and a
few of them have dropped their yellow petals. I find that the spent flowers
much like the Vanitas movement of Dutch art in the 17th century have
a beauty even though they remind us of the passing of time and that inevitable
death.
You make serene our days
O infinite source of
rays
the sustenance of life
you form and show for
them.
Without you, a dark
prison
for us would be the delightful
earth
and in the darkness of
grief
all nature would weep
Ergi La
Mente Al Sole
Luigi Rossi
