The Fifth Element or the Quintessence
On Ernst Meister’s poem ‚The Old Sun‘

 

→ Deutsche Version

The old sun
does not budge
from its position.

We
in the
turning time at twilight
live the fear or the heavy joy.

Love –
Trust and turn,

we have
known of it
on our trabant,

before everything
was past.

(1)

Here, between the sun and its trabant, the earth, a universe (2) is displayed – in its meaning derived from „unus“ and „versus“ – as being turned towards us in its entirety and at the same time facing us in a related way. Close to and very far away from it, we live in a state of fear and joy in the face of the immensity of the cosmos: not only with a heavy, dark expression at the change-over of dusk and dawn, but also in gaining awareness, as thoughts „dawn“ on us about our relationship with the world. Given Meister’s interest in primal images, the „old sun“ could be seen in a mythic sense as an image of the primal energy, the original source of existence. We must ask, however, whether this primal image is still valid for our human understanding of ourselves, given our present scientific knowledge. For if we continue to see the sun as the center of the universe, our knowledge of the existence of distant galaxies is rendered impossible. → read more