Willow and Ana-
I think it was a coyote, not a unicorn, which woke the neighborhood dogs,
who woke me, so that I encountered your lovely messages in the middle of
the night (for me).
The extra layers of meaning you find in the contexts of the poem you know
of are fascinating, and Jay's (?) posting of the German version is an apt
reminder that this is a translation, and not the only translation. Just
my favorite. With no knowledge of German, I cannot judge fidelity of
meaning to the original, but it makes the best sense/meaning/feeling to
me.
Your two messages bypass at least one level of meaning. The image of the
girl looking in the mirror with the unicorn nearby, perhaps within a
fence, is the subject of (at least) several tapestries that hang/hung
in the Cluny monestary in Paris. So one level/aspect/dimension of meaning
is "literal"-- a description of the painting.
Not there, because they loved it, they fed it with the possibility of
being.
Unicorns are cultural icons, imaginings, "recombitant cultural constructions"
and in some sense, do not, have not, will not exist. But ask any group
of college students:
A unicorn-- does it evoke good feelings or bad? They will tell you, good.
Ask them if they have ever seen a unicorn and confusion is evoked. Some say
yes, some say no.
The one's who say yes are thinking of pictures, figurines, stained glass
likenesses of the ideal that hang in the window so that the afternoon
light refracts through them (my favorite reifications).
May I recommend the article, available through lchc web page newsletters,
of Ernst Boesch's article on the sound of the violin? It explores the
dialectic between aesthetic ideals/pleasures and their embodiments in
tool-mediated practice over time. Something similar to what happens in the
case of unicorns.
My view that the reference to the horn being "in her" has several
interpretations, one of which is clearly sexual. But others which are
not. Internalization is rarely interpreted in physical terms in most
chat discussion, but in psychological terms. Both seem appropriate here.
And why a space?
Now, to sleep, perhaps to dream? My dreams these days turn to fly fishing,
not unicorns. Interpret that as you will! :-)
mike
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