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| Santiago de Compostela |
Over the
last weeks I visited Santiago de Compostela for its university. My study
Spanish this year included one residential week at this prestigious university,
which is known to be one of the best of Spain with over five centuries of
history. I imagine it attracted philosophers, searchers and thinkers amongst
the peregrinos, the pilgrims on their
Camino. Santiago became a ‘highway of knowledge’ a diffuser of the great
cultural and artistic movements that emerged in Europe some centuries ago.
Imagine,
until the ninth century, this town was all forest, named Libredón. In its
middle was a Roman Sepulchre and there, in the ruins of its primitive burial,
it is said the remains of one of Jesus’ apostles, Santiago, were discovered.
The today majestic Santiago de Compostela Cathedral was build on top of it and
the town became one of Europe’s most popular places of Christian pilgrimage.
But it
was great! It was quiet on the Camino with twenty-two whole kilometres to
contemplate. Then, when I thought I was lost, I met a wonderful woman and
helper, as happens on the Camino.
During
the sleepless night afterwards I was reminded of another Spanish route I had
taken some years ago. With the sweet memories of the relationship that followed,
the poem below came up.
I still see her
walking towards me
in the old olive grove
Ripe and juicy like the new
green harvest and
mysterious as the wild trees
themselves in their
being, coming from another
realm
It was somewhere down south
I saw her again
This time she came from the
north
walking towards Fisterra
(fini-tierra) like I did
A peregrina
Each step of her 800
kilometres carried by her maternal guru
we shared a part of the camino
sparkles on the path of our
lives
reaching these green valleys
of paradise
‘¡Buena suerte con tu vida!’
(Lots of luck in your life!)
Photos and text: © Adriana Sjan Bijman, 2014
