andri peer. un pled. [poems]

i found these sheets covered in braille writing in an alternative art supply store in vancouver and knew that i wanted to do something with it. about a month later, back home, when i came across this poem "un pled" (in german: "ein wort", in english: "a word"), written by andri peer and translated from rätoromanisch into german by herbert meier, in the newspaper i suddenly knew what that something was gonna be.

i was for some reason thrilled by the idea to paint a poem in a language that i do not speak on sheets covered in a script that i cannot read. just think of all the stories that could be mentioned in braille writing underneath the poem, the emerging - or rather hidden- juxtapositions of meanings and the possibilities that open up by not knowing! and most of all the opportunity to let the imagination roam free... rätoromanisch (romansh) is the fourth official language of switzerland, next to italian, french and german. it is a romance language and is spoken only in the southeastern part of the country, mostly in a canton called graubünden (grisons). 

ever since i can remember i wanted to learn this language but each time when the thought came up i was again and again disheartened by the low speaker number and the fact that there are just simply more useful languages to learn - says someone who put in some serious effort to learn icelandic...;) anyway, i will try to give a translation of the german version of the poem but i have to say that although both my german and my english are good enough i am probably the worst translator ever. additionally, as bede already stated in the ecclesiastical history of the english people in the 8th century when he translated caedmon's hymn from old english into latin:

"for it is not possible to translate verse, however well composed, literally from one language to another without some loss of beauty and dignity."

so - keeping that in mind - here goes: 

A word

Written into the white

Of your eyes

And I can't read it

For it becomes invisible during the day

Just to return at night

Word full of mystery

born and died

In a blink of an eye

And glowing 

In the darkness of self

as i said, just to give you a general sense of the words in the poem. i tried.

here is what it looked like in the end: