SEARCHED, FOUND (3)

FREEDOM (in a wood, in the afternoon)

They step. They climb.
Two Slovenians, Two Belgians.
The four climb a hill. A hill, not a mountain.
But when does a hill become a mountain?

It’s hot so there’s puffing.
Around there is wood, lots of wood. It’s no forest though.
But when does a wood become a forest?

A dragonfly shines in the sun. A butterfly rests on a leaf.
A bird hammers a nut on a stone. Until it breaks. The nut.
A bench has been built against a tree.
The inscriptions reveal that someone was celebrating his 50th birthday there.
But when does someone young become old?
Is there some fixed border between young and old?

There is a watchtower on top of the hill. The panorama is liberating.
They see another hill: “Smarna gora.”
In the far distance is a big lake.
But from their point of view it’s only “a pale blue dot!”
Gora means ‘mountain’. That’s confusing …

By the way, the S of Smarna should have a “^”, a ‘stresica’, a roof.
This is also the case with ‘z’ and ‘c’. The other letters in Slovenia are homeless.

In the cafe they drink an aperitif based on blueberries.
Spontaneously, all four of them, together with Fats Domino, start humming ‘I found my freedom’.
Satisfied with what they found, they leave Blueberry Hill.

FREEDOM (on a bridge in the evening)

A young man is sitting on a chair on a bridge in Ljubljana.
He plays on his ud, he plays Greek traditional songs.
“There was a time,” he says, “when they put you in jail for playing this song. Because of the text, because of the ethnic group you belonged to.”
The song is about rebellion, ‘vstaja’.

“I am so happy to be able to play music here on this bridge.
I’ve been commuting between home and work, work and home, home and work and home again … for quite some time now.
But now, here on this bridge, with my music, I feel freedom again.”

Shall we call this bridge from now on “Blueberry Bridge”?