Tytsjerksteradiel #4: Afternoon Walk

Posted by Illuci (Hurdegaryp, Netherlands) on 22 January 2008 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

„Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis“
Joh. Wolfgang von Goethe

In this quote from the last verses of Faust, Second Part, a great deal of the human problem is described and partly solved. Translation in English is difficult because of the word “Gleichnis”. It means about: “All perishable is but a metaphor” or: “All perishable is but a reflection” or “All transitory is but an image”. We humans experience a lot of happy moments, and we strive for happiness. Why? Because if we don’t care about our own or other people’s happiness, or if we do it the wrong way, we feel we don’t act according to a kind of Great Law. Some call it Law of Nature, others see this Law described in a Holy Book such as the Bible or the Koran. We feel, but cannot demonstrate with modern science rules, that there is a Great Truth to which everything has to obey. We see that everything changes, mostly by decaying, destruction or perishing and being replaced by something new filling in its place. Some people, among them Goethe, see these changeable observable reality as a reflection, a metaphor of the unchangeable Great Truth that really counts and upon which all perishable things and creatures are based. This is symbolized by the dead reeds reflecting the golden Light, by which it is turned seemingly into gold, and by the seemingly silver ice that will melt the other day also reflecting the eternal Light. It’s not the things themselves, it’s what lets them shine - what lets them exist -, thus seducing ignorant people to striving for these things, and endowing wise people with the knowledge of what lets them shine.

BTW You can see the walkers in the left upper corner of the picture.

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