My poem, on a proverb

Purani jaska strazo phabjol

Old firewood catches alight quickly.

A friend upon reunion with his friend

Will smile greatly.

While an enemy, upon reunion with his enemy, will scoul

and snarl as though he had just been wronged.

Friend shall stick by friend

through all ages and times

Brother will love brother, sister will love sister

as family are known and expected to do.

Time and age ripens all  feelings

of both love and hate, compassion and loathing.

And should two be apart

the reunion will be met

with those feelings first

and others later.

Old sparks turn into flames once again.

old rivalries rekindle the same.

old loves run just as deep

as the day they were first made.

Old firewood catches alight quickly

Blog 9

So out of the works of art provided, I chose David Zaafra’s Carmen Amaya in her last dance in Bagur, http://www.romaniworld.com/gal15.htm. According to the little sentence or two given with the work, Carmen Amaya died a month after being painted. In the painting, Carmen Amaya is in the middle of a dance, likely a Flamenco considering the rest of the gallery is Flamenco related.  What really stands out to me in this painting, however, is the alternating views of her expression. In one respect, she appears to be concentrating, entranced in her routine. The arch of her eyebrows and closed eyes that trace out a pre-determined routine lead her through each step, and Zaafra managed to capture the entire process in just one instance. However, unlike other paintings of dancers and Flamenco poses, this one has an air of sadness, of things coming shortly to a close. the pursing of the mouth and same arching of the eyebrows that express concentration also hold a feeling of wear, the dance is much closer to its finish than it’s beginning. Maybe Zaafra managed to capture a metaphor of life and old age in one painting of a dancer, or maybe he just painted a woman dancing. That’s the beauty of art however, isn’t it? The complete openness to any sort of interpretation the viewer wants. A man may look at the Mona Lisa and see a woman sitting there smiling, while another may see a whole world conatined only in her smile. I choose to see Carmen Amaya as a representation, intentional or coincidental, of something greater. Perhaps another viewer see’s her as a result of hard work, an expert at what she does, deftly execute each motion as gracefully as the last, each motion, every twitch of her fingers made by design. Either way, it’s an awesome portrait.