The summer,
as usual in Holland, was vanished in the cold Scandinavian winds and… When all of
us were ready for the autumn –last week of August- yeah, yeah, the sun began
to shine… It was a hot Indian summer in autumn. As a kind of celebration we
decided to take a break and go to the see, but – as usual in Holland- there was
no place for anyone at the beach, and no room for two… So, no beach… boys!
Instead of
the North, we went to the South. One all-day trip to Maastricht. We are always
sitting in the middle so, any direction is always possible when you want to run
away. Maastricht doesn’t have a beach but it has a river: the Maas; quiet
impressive but less splendid than the Danube. Yes, Maastricht is a nice and
pleasant city but… doesn’t have the grandeur of Prague… neither than Vienna,
and yes, The Saint Servaas bridge is the oldest bridge of Holland, but it’s
less opulent than the Charles Bridge. Anyway, Saint Servaas, as the Charles
bridge, provided a lovely striking view of the river, the harbor and the city.
So, what more can we ask??
One of the
attractions of the city is, no doubt about, the bookshop. The bookshop had
originally been the oldest Lowlands
Gothic monastery church in the centre of Maastricht. It boasts a sacral
elements as stained-glasses windows and fresco’s dating from 1619. Yes, The 13th
century Dominican Bookshops is a unique gothic place to be and to look around. It has been many times
selected as the most beautiful bookshop in the world and some people knows it
as the ‘Heaven”. Right there, looking
for something cold to refresh myself as a Knausgaard’s novels I found, as
thirty years earlier, face to face with the cool wind of Murakami’s first
novella’s, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball. This time it was not just a home-run,
it was a major Cathedral-run!! Who had said that once the books are vanished,
never return?
Feeling
excited and hot again, it was a kind of
blue be sitting in my lovely place to re-read Murakami’s Wind with a few more
devices than the simple Gaga radio of the seventies. It was quite easy to find
in YouTube the Rat’s songs and… really amazing it was to discover how one song
can you bring to another in a most crazy and weird ways. It was how looking for
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain” I found Juan Gabriel’s
cover of
“Have you ever seen the rain” and, Yeah, yeah, “Gracias al sol” I have learned a little more how literature and music could take us to another order of the things and, beyond of the years and our age, they could bring us to the highest point where our vanished dreams will be return… Let’s rock baby!..
“Have you ever seen the rain” and, Yeah, yeah, “Gracias al sol” I have learned a little more how literature and music could take us to another order of the things and, beyond of the years and our age, they could bring us to the highest point where our vanished dreams will be return… Let’s rock baby!..
Paraphrasing
Nietzsche, How can those who live in the
light of the Caribbean sun possible comprehend the coldest of winter!
Carmen Socorro Ariza-Olarte
