Amour et Mort in Inca Land
"Viewers must put on the provided white gloves to flip through the book of prints created by Noriko Shinohara. According to Princenthal, the illustrations are of epic struggles that date from Homer’s Greece to pre-colonial Mexico. Poetry covers the pages opposite the images." Review in The Daily Northwestern [click here]
Seen Metaphors
Noriko Shinohara
I
High over the mountain of Andes
There is an
ancient town Cuzco –
bellybutton in Quechua, Inca language –
3,400
meters high:
so close to sun,
so close to God,
Light so
strong
Sun Beam penetrates the people and the world.
II
It is a place where East and West melt together
Like a strawberry ice cream over Asian pastry made with
beans.
People preserve corpses as mummies
believing the spirit
will come back,
The mummy will regain life.
Time passes through
the ancient street of Inca.
With harmony,
With stillness of stones
III
In the night, there is a sun in the sky of Inca.
Every night the sun shines in the darkness, like an eclipse.
Day
& Night are mixing with each other.
People with Alpacas eat
walking around for tourists.
IIII
The place higher than clouds
purity &
cleanness exist,
offer an innocent female to the sun.
The sacrifice
trembles with joy & ecstasy
believing in an eternity in heaven,
leaving the ephemeral life
V
There is a silence with brilliant sun and music of
Inca.
One can hear the sound of water and wings of butterfly
around
the fountain,
in the mountain stones.
Eternity of love & peace
continues,
in the reverie forever
in the valley of Macchu
Pichu