Originally written in Catalan and completed in just seven days, this book can be read either as a simple collection of haikus or as a tripartite poem in which each piece is linked to the others while also containing its own self-contained world. Its verses are sprinkled with the wonder that reality arouses in the individual, the (always mistaken) idea of death, certain paradoxes, poetic self-reference, the celebration of love, and the evocation of the shadows of the last century. The Universe in Three Verses thus stands as an example of the intersection between haiku tradition and formal experimentation, fusing an objective poetics with a subjective ethical commitment.
The Universe in three verses
Oriol Espinal
§ Poetry / 1993
1
just three verses...
if you water them with your mind
a world will bloom.
2
dark non-time...
the fire that looks outward...
the most radiant burst.
3
the moon blossoms...
the blood of a withered sun...
two red flowers.
4
shredded moon...
sunflower in shadowed soil...
the night blooms.
5
the shadows reign...
not a blade of grass stirs...
the wasteland smiles.
6
rustle of brush...
the snowy owl’s howls...
a rat’s tremble.
7
knotted serpents...
a swirling cloud of dust...
the dragon of air.
8
cold and silence...
bone and ice are one...
a blackbird’s eye.
9
dew drops...
the landscape’s new eyes...
how many worlds in the world?
10
the river’s voice...
sings eternity...
is time made of water?
11
twisted almond tree...
a spider tightens its thread...
the wind’s archer.
12
July light...
the golden teeth of wheat...
scythe and memory.
13
a tamarisk...
the sea between the branches...
window and mask.
14
an old cypress...
the long arms of a cloud...
the southern cross.
15
moos at dawn...
the bull does not see the blue...
a vulture glides.
16
a dead oriole...
a maple seed...
an angel sprouts.
