Tien jaar gemis

Het is vandaag tien jaar geleden dat mijn beste vriendin Nelly overleed aan de gevolgen van uitgezaaide longkanker. Zoals elk jaar sta ik stil bij dat verlies. Elk jaar kies ik een gedicht dat past bij dat moment, bij mijn gevoel van dat moment. Aangezien we thans door Chili reizen, koos ik werk van een van 's lands beroemdste dichteressen: Gabriela Mistral. Zij was de eerste vrouw uit Zuid-Amerika die de Nobelprijs voor Literatuur ontving (1945).

Dit gedicht gaat over jeugdvriendinnen en hun dromen voor later, die -naarmate ze ouder worden- niet blijken uit te komen. Zo verging het Nelly en mij ook. We gunden elkaar een lang leven maar een gezamenlijke toekomst lag niet meer op ons pad... Helaas. Ze wordt nog zeer gemist.

We were all going to be queens

We were all going to be queens,
of four kingdoms over the sea:
Rosalia with Efigenia
and Lucila with Soledad.

In the valley of Elqui, surrounded
by a hundred mountains or more,
as sacrifices or tributes
they burn in red or saffron.

We would utter it intoxicated,
and we had it in truth,
that we would all be queens
and that we would come to the sea.

With seven year old braids,
and clear robes of cloth,
pursuing thrushes who fled
through the shadow of fig trees.

Of the four kingdoms, we would say,
unquestionable like the Qu’ran,
that for being grand and upright
they would reach the sea.

Four spouses would marry,
at the time for marrying,
and they were kings and cantors
like David, king of Judah.

And for our kingdoms to be great,
they would have, without fault,
green seas, seas of algae,
and the crazy bird of the pheasant.

And to have all the fruits,
tree of milk, tree of bread,
we wouldn’t cut into the lignum tree
or bite into metal.

We were all going to be queens,
and truthfully would reign;
but not one has been queen,
not in Arauco or Copan...

Rosalia kissed a sailor
already wed to the sea,
and to the kisser, in the Guaitecas,
he swallowed the storm.

Soledad raised seven brothers
and left her blood in the bread,
and her eyes remained black
from never having seen the sea.

In the vines of Montegrande,
with her pure breast of whitened bread,
she rocked the sons of other queens
and never her own.

Efigenia crossed a stranger
in the path, and without speaking,
followed him, not knowing his name,
because he resembled the sea.

And Lucila, who spoke to a river,
a mountain, and sugar canes,
in moons of madness
acquired a true kingdom.

In the clouds she counted ten sons
and in the salt mines her reign,
in the rivers she has seen spouses
and her cloak in the storm.

But in the valley of Elqui, where
there are a hundred mountains or more,
the others who came are singing
and those that come will sing:

“In the earth we will be queens,
and in truth will reign
and being great our kingdoms,
we all will come to the sea.”

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)

Gabriela Mistrals echte naam was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. Ze was dochter van Petronila Alcayaga. (Nelly’s eerste doopnaam was Petronella.)