Judaspoem

[trinityofone]

Everything that's been going on recently with Different, Better has made me want to reread Brendan Kennelly's The Book of Judas. Kennelly is an Irish poet whom I discovered about nine months after I wrote the first draft of the story, and he's influenced my thinking about it ever since. The Book of Judas is almost 400 pages of poems, most of which are from Judas' perspective, but also which get into the hearts and minds of modern people, many of them Irish, many of them Dubliners. What's amazing about the book (aside from the poetry itself, which is wow) is that Kennelly essentially claims Judas for Ireland. He claims Judas for Ireland: he takes that which is, by the world, perhaps most feared and loathed and he asks it to step inside and make itself at home. He's not making excuses, but he's not afraid to sympathize, even empathize with it. How cool is that?

I'm reminded of Seamus Heaney's introduction to his translation of Beowulf, in which he does basically the same thing, likening the Irish to Grendel prowling around in the dark, watching the light and the heat of Heorot Hall, but never able to go inside. I'm reminded of countless U2 lyrics: I stand with the sons of Cain. And I'm sure there are other examples.

I love the Irish. I love that they feel this need to sympathize with history's hated. This is one of those times when I think, yeah, this may be the country for me.

Anyway, I had to return The Book of Judas to the library yesterday, but before I did, I copied down my favorite poem, which now I'll share with you. psychopepsquad, you especially should look into reading this book. It's hard to find in the U.S., but our library does have a copy. (Points to UCB!)

So here's my favorite poem. Don't tell me this doesn't give you chills.

No Image Fits
by Brendan Kennelly

I have never seen him and I have never seen
Anyone but him. He is older than the world and he
Is always young. What he says is in every ear
And has never been heard before.
I have tried to kill him in me,
He is in me more than ever.
I saw his hands smashed by dum-dum bullets,
His hands holding the earth are whole and tender.
If I knew what love is I would call him a lover.
Break him like glass, every splinter is wonder.
I had not understood that annihilation
Makes him live with an intensity I cannot understand.
That I cannot understand is the bit of wisdom I have found.
He splits my mind like an axe a tree.
He makes me heart deeper and fuller than my heart will dare to be.
He would make me at home beyond the sky and the black ground,
He would amaze me with the light on the brilliant sand,
He is the joy of the first word, the music of the undiscovered human.
Undiscovered! Yet I live as if my music were known.
He is what I cannot lose and cannot find
He is nothing, nothing but body and soul and heart and mind.

So gentle is he the gentlest air
Is rough by comparison
So kind is he I cannot dream
A kinder man
So distant is he the farthest star
Sleeps at my breast
So near is he the thought of him
Puts me outside myself

So one with love is he
I know love is
Time and eternity
And all their images.
No image fits, no rod, no crown.

I brought him down.

Comments

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

I brought him down.

*shiver*

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Exactly.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I usually have a bad reaction to Andrew Lloyd Webber, but maybe sometime I'll give it a shot. Just for the camp. ;-)

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

i like the first movie version of it. judas is actually the most sympathetic character in the musical. it's webber's first, and his best--before he became so completely formulaic. if you like, i'll watch it with you.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

That'd be fun. How long are you sticking around after finals? I'd have to be some time when I'm not feeling completely crazy.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Well, when you put it like that...

What's going on with Kung Fu Hustle, BTW?

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

this weekend? i'm mostly free.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Sure. I can do it tonight or pretty much anytime tomorrow. Let me know when's good for you.

[caseymae.livejournal.com]

I thought about Judas Iscariot, about whom a brilliant author relates that he betrayed Jesus just because he believed in him infinitely: he couldn't wait for the miracle through which Jesus was to have shown all the Jews his divine power. So he handed Him over to His tormentors in order to provoke Him at last to action. He betrayed Him, because he longed to hasten His victory.

-Milan Kundera, Laughable Loves

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

To serve an age you have to betray it.

--Brendan Kennelly