Planet Literature

A Poem from the Author’s Early Work

In her poem Nachtfalter („Nocturnal Butterflies“), Ilona Lay creates the vision of a world determined by reflection and empathy. Especially today, this seems to be a fitting counter-image to our reality, which is marked by war and destruction.

Ilona Lay has once again appeared in our editorial office with a revised poem from her early work. In the image of nocturnal butterflies, she creates the vision of a world in which human togetherness is based on reflection and empathy;

a world in which all beings sense the deeper connections with their fellow beings and base their encounters with others on these common roots;

a world in which everyone has enough time to think through disagreements with others and resolve them on the basis of confidence in a  common understanding;

a world in which reflection on the basic matters of life is given more importance than the distracting escape from them.

In view of a reality in which the striving for power, avarice and alienation from the fundamental aspects of existence determine interpersonal relationships to the point of physical destruction of others, the poem seemed to strike a nerve for us. That is why we are letting Ilona’s nocturnal butterflies float off into the net today.

Nocturnal Butterflies

Breathed by the evening, they quietly rise
from the reed beds, where they circle by day
around eternal questions, the bread of the wise,
and glide into the void, listening on a pensive journey
to the conciliatory whisper of the universe.

Often a dark cloud of questions drifts
unconquered through the splendour of their flights.
But caressed by the wings of the moon,
they can smilingly renounce the questions
and detach themselves from the deceit of knowledge.

With the chamber of their souls wide open,
they glide dreamily around the dreams of others,
though by day they wander lonely
through the inner deserts, keeping their chimeras
from stealing into the lives of others.

They sense the roots of others circling
around their own unfoldment in deeper layers,
so that they touch each other in flight
like harp and wind in common singing
and resound in each other like twins.

Image: AI generated