Words get in the way

I love words; there’s no denying my addiction. Words in and for themselves: languorous, confabulation, gossamer, ethereal… Even more so in my native Afrikaans: koekemakranka, bollemakiesie, abjater, pypkan, verkneukel, ietermagog. I could go on for hours. And don’t get me started on word etymologies, tracing a word back to its first blooming hundreds of years ago.
 
But. Sometimes, words get in the way.
 
A current trend on Facebook made me realise to what extent we have become drowned in mediocre words. The aim is to post a black and white photo every day for seven days, a snippet of your life, but with no explanation. You have to ignore the impulse to “say something about this”. Just post the photos. Sans words.
 
How refreshing and intriguing to see the images and wonder about the what, where and why. Their meanings slip away or become manifold. They remain a mystery, an enigma. We have become so used to adding a tag to everything, to explain exactly what it means, laying bare its anatomy to the very sun-bleached bones.
 
In the same way, we often explain away the mystery of art and poetry. It is not enough that a painting or poem touches us to the core. We are not satisfied with being left breathless and in awe. We always have to add our two cents’ worth, to “go and spoil it all by saying something stupid”.
 
I do not deny the fact that analysis and explanation can enhance an artwork. Knowing the backstory, the intertextuality of a work – the references, the artist’s life story, the myths and archetypes – can indeed give us a deeper understanding thereof. Digging up the makings of a poem or spelunking for the buried bones of a painting can be just as satisfying as following the trail of a word back to its origin in a long lost language.
 
But there is a time and a place for silence as well.
 
Sometimes we just have to shut up and listen. We have to see the butterfly’s iridescence without having to spike it on a pin. We have to remain breathless. Speechless.
 
Aquiver with the tintinnabulation of stars. Ineffable.