Figures on the beach
The question of what happens on the beach as soon as night falls touches on a number of clichés: that we lose our hearts, which in this case are fleshy organs.
The question will be placed on stage in two different ways. First, in the old man’s love for a (seemingly) young woman — in other words, by discussing the so-called gender gap, which in fact reveals itself as a romanticised idea of love that crosses all borders. Second, by combining the initial question with a subordinate one: What happens on stage when the three become four, and then the four become three, each accusing the other of the inappropriate shift?
-
until they sink to their knees, as
the barbarians do
in prayer, their bodies joined body
to body, forming
a communion before the eyes of
the Almighty.When the points merge into
one another,
it happens involuntarily that
they point to the one
from whom all things proceed—
the movements, the
angles and intersections they
form, the universe
as it lies spread out before us—
which Maria touches
without thinking, playing with the
fingers of her right
hand that had, just before, still
been meant for
me, her middle and index fingers
moving in the gentle
roll of the waves, following their
spiraling rise and fall.until they sink to their knees, as
the barbarians do
in prayer, their bodies joined body
to body, forming
a communion before the eyes of
the Almighty.At the same time she utters
barely audible
sounds of delight, so that Rahele,
involuntarily
lifting his garment higher, steps
closer to her
beneath the glittering multiplicity
of the One, which, in
the immeasurable depths, shines
at once above
and below them—until they sink to
their knees,
as the barbarians do in prayer, their
bodies joined
body to body, forming a communion
before the eyes of the Almighty.