Tesbih 17 – Your head breathes heavily, slowly, Fatumeh

Tesbih 17, for bass clarinet, as quasi-concert version, from the chamber-pantomim-ballet based on the poetry collection ”The Tale of Fatumeh” by the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf (1907-1968).

It is the tale of Fatumeh, a girl sold into prostitution by her mother, then for a while kept as a concubine by a prince, abondened but surviving by force of spirit. Although the story is conventionally tragic, the vitality of Fatumeh brings a completely new dimension to the story.

The collection of poems are devided into two parts; the first naming the poems Naẓm 1-29, the second Tesbīḥ 1-29.

Your head breathes heavily, slowly, Fatumeh it swells and contracts as if it felt the burden of its own weight on the pillow – of the long threads of the thoughts of the fringes of the thoughts Your spring was blue, with a sprinkling of red Red your summer was Blood red now in autumn You are like the jellyfish, blooming before its end with long threads Your head tries to breathe where you lie where the waves hit the sand with scarcely enough water to move up or down There is no depth anymore and no hope – or is there still? Yes, to sink into one’s own depth of jelly when the sea pulls back and you lie left on the sand and shrivel Turn to stone.