Chants of the Universe
Cántico cósmico (1989) (German edition: Gesänge des Universum (1992)) is an epic work of poetry by the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal .
Cardenal's largest volume of poetry attempts a poetic overview of the entire cosmos. The 43 chants comprehensive work integrates themes that Cardenal occupied his whole life: human and divine love, amazement at creation, the accusation of social injustice, the truths in the myths of the peoples and the ideal socialist society as the realization of the kingdom of God on earth.
Content and subject areas
In some cases, Cardenal takes over previously published poems for his chants or he combines elements from earlier poems into new great poems. Therefore, the poet describes the work itself as his main work .
Cardenal wants to deal with the last great questions of humanity in his work. In doing so, he inserts fragments from different areas of life and knowledge into his poems, which he himself describes as the “exteriorismo style”. What is new compared to previous works is the examination of the latest scientific findings, which are placed as fragments alongside other fragments from creation myths, biblical quotations and observations of nature. Among other things, Cardenal deals with the question of the origin of all things. Chants that contain this topic include the first chant “The Big Bang” and the last chant “Omega”. At the same time, these two chants form a frame for the volume.
"Today physicists talk like mystics"
This quote points to two main keywords in Cardenal's "astrophysical" poems. On the one hand on astrophysics with its big bang theory, and on quantum physics , according to which every particle is also a wave. On the other hand, he repeatedly alludes to the evolutionary theory of the natural scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin , who assumes a goal-oriented development for the cosmos made by the divine spirit towards an endpoint Omega . He poetically links these two “key words” to the idea of a cosmos that is always in motion and in flux.
Cardenal thus includes all the themes of his poetic work: the spirit, which is invisible in the universe , is love for him. Love creates life. And this love drives evolution. In the same way love also creates the revolution in order to produce an ever more just social order:
"Evolution is the struggle between preservation and revolution"
literature
- Helmut Koch: Ernesto Cardenal. Edition text and criticism, München 1992.
- Thomas Piehler: "I am all alone in the universe (?)." Lyrical expression of heavenly experience in the tension between praise of creation and distance from God in Gryphius, Brecht and Cardenal. Tübingen 2006 (approval work, mach.).