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JOHANNA DOMOKOS
I feel this is partly the nature of the Language itself, of the verbal ocean, and how
this flows inside the writer’s language. The writer in me often asks, what if this is
the creation itself, the cosmic and never ending evolution? Is this mystery going
on inside of the author in the form of verbal creativity? In what ways does the act
of writing—to which the writer is delivered—qualify, as a matter of fact, asa real
initiation to the mystery of creation?
Following the symbolic steps of this argumentation, we arrive at the heart
of the theme of this work. Moreover, in the major motifs—the servant,
emptiness, time, the love of the mystic, and the concept of God—we find
strong intertextual ties to Christian mysticism. As we can see from the areas
of the essay marked in grey below, the author invokes a mysticism rooted in
the long history of European thought:
Humans are the chosen species. In search for a transcendent knowledge, homo
sapiens evolved into a practitioner of higher levels of consciousness and so he
became homo religiosus, a servant of the Absolute. That was the greatest invention
of all... The runner is now like a human god of new kingdom in a crown of light,
but he does not vanish into the twilight of the idols, furiously though the devil’s
tail pounds upon his eardrums... The servant groans and gasps to continue that
which his master will shortly bring to an end.”
The ideas embedded in the text above, with its accompanying connotations
of Christian mysticism, express artistic and aesthetic values culminating
in a compelling final sentence, which serves as the closing thought of
the Hungarian adapted version of Juoksu: “Ihe servant groans and gasps to
continue that which his master will shortly bring to an end.” These images
of emptying oneself, and the idea of emptiness, can also be interpreted as
reminiscent of Buddhist or Sufi mysticism. As Ehrnrooth puts it:
Not in time, but through time the mind empties itself, chasing that elusive point,
expanding and contracting endlessly like a jellyfish... Emptying the mind must be
practiced and re-practiced daily. Feet drum Mother Earth to recollect the eternal
calm outside the universe. One stride, million strides, until the remorseless fatigue
presses its cold lips to servant’s forehead. As his mind empties, the runner smiles,
his face bathed in beatific light. He knows there is an obstacle to overcome, yet he
also knows there is the one to overcome it. (2013, 86)
As this excerpt also demonstrates, drumming is another reoccurring motif.
Here it serves not only as a reference to the Finnish or Finno-Ugric shamanic
® Jari Ehrnrooth, Kaipaava askel | The Yearning Stride, 84, 86.
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