This is quite the mind-pressing, deep, and question-worthy poem I am sharing with you all today. This was sent to me by a colleague today, and I was immediately struck with the desire and need to share it.
“Nothingness”
by Aharon Amir
I woke up at night and my language was gone
No sign of language no writing no alphabet
nor symbol nor word in any tongue
and raw was my fear-like the terror perhaps
of a man flung from a treetop far above the ground
a shipwrecked person on a tide-engulfed sandbank
a pilot whose parachute would not open
or the fear of a stone in a bottomless pit
and the fright was unvoiced unlettered unuttered
and inarticulate O how inarticulate
and I was alone in the dark
a non-I in the all-pervading gloom
with no grasp no leaning point
everything stripped of everything
and the sound was speechless and voiceless
and I was naught and nothing
without even a gibbet to hang onto
without a single peg to hang onto
and I no longer knew who or what I was
and I was no more
–translated from the Hebrew by Abraham Birman
What do you think? Powerful isn’t it. I had never thought of how terrifying a world without language and expression through words would be, and I’ll admit that I became a bit anxious as I read this poem the first time. I believe this is a poem I will share with my students in the future. I have always stressed to them the importance of language and communication, but I don’t know if I could ever express it better than Mr. Amir.
Thank you for a great post.
Beautiful piece.