Readers,
I dedicate this poem to Caroline Leaf, Janet Perlman, Theodore Ushev, Torill Kove, and all the other amazing directors of the National Film Board of Canada; may they continue to inspire from their beautiful homeland.
π️π️
Vaysha's Eyes:
A poem inspired by Theodore Ushev's Oscar-nominated short film Blind Vaysha
Written by A. Eleazar
π©π«π¬
On
one stormy day, the lighting flashed,
The wind howled, the thunder crashed.
As
the villagers went inside for shelter,
A
young woman had become a mother.
πΆπ»
The
baby was a beautiful little girl
Named Vaysha while the winds did whirl.
There
was something unique about her eyes,
Everyone
discovered beneath stormy skies.
π️π️
Everyone
saw that her left eye was green
As
the leaves on trees in Spring could be seen;
Everyone
saw that her right eye was brown
As
the leaves trees had on for Autumn’s crown.
⌛⏳
When
Vaysha grew up, and began to talk fast,
She
said that her left eye only saw the past.
Then
Vaysha explained that she was like a seer,
She
said that her right eye only saw the future.
π΅πΆ
Fearing
the eyes were the effects of magic,
To
prevent Vaysha’s life from becoming tragic,
Old
medicine women flocked to her house:
A
tribe of cats all chasing the same mouse.
πΊπ¦
π
"Take this bottle with
extract of blue thistle,
Take it before the
rooster's dawn whistle."
Gallbladder
of buzzard, heart of rooster;
The
old women all attempted to cure her.
ππ¦π
"Drink many drops of it
for forty days,
Minutes before the sun
shows his rays."
Feather
of peacock, tongue of viper;
All placed on one eye, then on the other.
π¦
But
of all these cures, all of them failed,
And
Athena’s owl had flown and wailed.
Nothing
could make Vaysha's sight normal;
It
appeared that her split vision was eternal.
ππ️π️π
Outdoors,
Vaysha would bump into the trees,
Trip
on flower pots, and receive scraped knees.
Her
left eye saw the trees small and growing;
Her
right eye saw the trees big, tall, and dying.
π§π»π¦π»π️π️π΅π»π΄π»
The
present was absent in her sight and mind,
Her
neighbours called her, "Vaysha the Blind."
She
perceived both her parents as two minors;
She
perceived both her parents as two seniors.
π¦π¦π»π¦πΌπ¦π½π️π️π΄π΄π»π΄πΌπ΄π½
Vaysha
grew up and became a woman lovely.
Her
two-coloured eyes made her a beauty.
Many
young men lined up to be her suitors,
Her
eyes saw them both as boys and as elders.
ππ️π️π
Despaired
by no cure to her visual disability,
Blind
Vaysha now only left her house rarely.
When
she was sleeping, she could not rest.
The
visions resume to strike fear in her breast.
π§π»π️π️⚰
In
her left eye, she was a girl young and bold.
In
her right eye, she was a crone dead and old.
Sometimes
her left eye perceived the Creation.
Sometimes
her right eye perceived the Revelation.
π️
So,
wishing to stop Father Time's sands,
Vaysha
decided taking matters in her hands.
As
she stared and blinked at the time split-sky,
Blind
Vaysha had decided to pull out an eye.
π️
But
which one should she pull from her sight?
The
eye on the left or the eye on the right?
The
past comforted and the future scared her;
Blind
Vaysha did not live happily ever after.
For
my dear readers who read this rhyme,
Continue
to live and act in the present time.
Please
remember in your heart and mind,
Do
not see the world like Vaysha the Blind.
References
cited:
- Gospodinov, G. (2007). Blind Vaysha. In And Other Stories (pp. 55-57). Northwestern University Press.
- Ushev, T. (Director). (2016). Blind Vaysha [Film]. Canada: National Film Board of Canada
