Zeker waard om de teksten hier goed te luisteren; Joanna is wat mij betreft een woordkunstenares die gerust in de (Engelse) literaire canon mag worden opgenomen (zoals ik al eens schreef bij The Milk-Eyed Mender). Ik bedoel maar:
and, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
in a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
you taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
tho all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember
that the meteorite is a source of the light
and the meteor's just what we see
and the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
Pure pracht!
Overigens vind ik The Milk-Eyed Mender tekstueel nog iets sterker, aangezien Ys toch, inderdaad, iets 'verhalender' is en daardoor die pure essentie die van Mender uitging niet weet te overtreffen. Desalniettemin is het weer schoonheid troef hier. Nog altijd de verdiende 5*.