Ad3aba the tree
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The second encounter was a tree. A winter tree. With bare branches.
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​- “From the underworld, Persephone will soon be springing!”
​I hear something.
(Who is there? To whom am I keeping silent? But if the silence of my mouth meets the surprise of my eyes... If the silence of my voice meets the movement of my head... What could that head mean to say:“who is there? To whom am I keeping silent?”)
- “Inside a dream, inside a running cloud, on the back of a giant goat, a big tree has laid ground. You are the dreamer whose dream I inhabit. I am Ad3aba, the tree at the other end of your sentence.”
​I stay silent.
(I am silent. Eyes, head and voice have agreed. “Silent(3)” is their message.)
- “Have the Oneiroi been flooded by Lethe?”
(It now seems to me that the tree is laughing. I would swear I heard a laugh breaking through its crackling.)
- “Your 'silent(3)' is not listening to itself. Can one be silent on its own? Can one be silent in its whole? I guess you could be silent(4), with your standing legs but then what for? Your 'silent' will never reach the heart. Cause silent a heartbeat can not be. But at this point, let me wonder what silent(5) and (6) could be?”
(Have I heard that laugh? Is it the tree Ad3aba? Yes, the tree is laughing. Can I be laughing too? Could a tree laugh on its own? Could one laugh with a tree? Let’s send another “silent(3)”.)
- “You dreamers! You are a 'silent' lost in translation. As silence is now lost in your mind. It was meant to meet me. But instead met itself. If only your ‘silent’ could listen...”
(Now this is a laugh. The tree is definitely laughing. I must be laughing(2). Could a laughing tree be a running cloud? Could running be the laughing of the foot when it is off the ground? Could a cloud be a tree or a tree be a cloud? What would all this make me, Ad3aba? Could I be laughing(3) ?)
- “You are a swimming dreamer. And I am on the other side of the 'and' that fits the wordless land. Can you see now, you and I, laughing your 'silent' off the cloud! 'silent' in dreams is not to be. And to be is not 'silent' but 'listen'. Consonants just messing with your senses. Swapping places. Sweeping back outside the sound of the ‘i’. But if your 'silent' listens itself... are both of them not exactly the same?”
(Could my “silent” be my listening to him, Ad3aba? A silent listening to him laughing.)
- “In other words: my laughing is your ‘silent’ listening to me laughing.”
(I am all ears. Listening. But I wonder. If I am an ear listening to the laughter of a tree… If the tree was all ears. If the whole tree was an ear. Listening anyway, listening either way... Whose laughter his silent listening might be hearing?)
- “The garden you are looking for is beyond your own scale. Behind my cloud. But *winter is outside. And my gates are closed. I am wrapped around the heart of a dear loving goat. Everything is happening, here beneath the ground. You, dreamer, you, emigrant. There, in your land, *summer is grand.”
(I am listening still. I can feel my ears growing. Wider. Bigger. Could they be trying to catch the heartbeat?)
- “The ear you wish to grow is too big for a creature of your scale. Your journey has just started. In the meantime, and in few words: Stay here with me. I have stories to tell. Would you be my silence? Would you listen to my tale?”
(I keep listening. And my ears keep growing. Here, a deeper sound leads to a deeper ear. Like a “silent” running into “listen”. From one word to another. The lips are now detaching themselves from one another. Giving the ears a hand. A taste of that heart maybe? Could they catch something? Can a fly give the mouth a hint of that beating? My feet have started sinking into the ground. Trying to keep as still as they can. I wish they would run. But could they run faster than the ears can hear. Could they be able to reach that rhythm? I remember a running cloud. I wonder if, Ad3aba...)