Colors fade at change of day
Õklá (Skiá) veiled and dwelling creeps to the for
A company of one and a soul left bare
Crying out for answers
Skugge, grant me your song
answer my plea
Venues rises as the world fades to blackest night
Skugge, answer my plea
A company of one and a soul left bare
Cries out into the night
Against the howling winds and fading of living
Shadow, grant me your wisdom
Answer my plea
So too Shadow fades away
Day is claimed by darkness
The lost soul cries in anguish, left to be engulfed
An echo arises, as the world is claimed by Shadow
A voice, the same yet different cries back
Umbra cries, answer my plea
The world is flipped, a land of confusion
Umbra answers the soul
With the same voice, yet different words
For a fire ablaze with light exists within
The soul need only travel inwards, Umbra shouts
Umbra shouts
Potential, life, will and wisdom can be found
The soul need only travel inwards
Õklá (Skiá) Skugge Shadow Umbra are made one
The darkness fades as the soul blazes with light
Night is no more
The dawn rises
Tristan Barnard
BSc Wood & Wood Product Science,
STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY
This poem at it’s most basic level is the story of a perceived mad man yelling at his own shadow out of frustration while on a journey for answers. The idea was taken from my own interpretation of the song “Skugge” by the band Wardruna and as such may share a similar message. The poem refers to the idea that when on a journey of discovering one’s own place in the world one will need to be whole. To travel into one’s own mind and reconcile with the aspects which we shun within ourselves to achieve a balance and to discover our true purpose, as represented by the light and dark motif.
The above drawing (Luna) was done to be pared with the poem and reflects the dark and light motif while tying in the cyclical nature of inner reflection represented by the lunar cycle. The idea of the new moon also plays into this and how previous preconceptions die and new are born out of light and dark.
