Anonymous poem: A Faun meets a Taormina shepherd

"In the most remote areas of Taormina's wilderness,

Young shepherds met fauns and satyrs, Pan and Dionysos,

Hidding behind a rock, vanishing in a flash, a flash of light.

Most of the time they were mere illusions, a reflection of the sun,

A mirage in Taormina's wilderness, at the peak of the hot wave,

Or just a noise of a rock falling down from a cliff...

But Pasqualino met a faun, a real faun, sitting on a rock,

Far away from the usual paths of Taormina's young shepherds,

So far that he was in the middle of nowhere...

"Are you a god or just an illusion ?", asked Pasqualino.

"Did I love you a long time ago, I am sure I know you",

Answered the faun with his Dionysiac horns...

"Cute shepherd of Taormina, please, play a melody for me,

A melody from your reed flute, perhaps I will sing one for you,

A song of love, of the love of gods for Taormina's shepherds...

Please, have a seat on this rock, beside me, let us sing and dream,

Hope and remember, love and be loved, let me tell you the legend of fauns,

Please tell me the story of your life, where you are from, what you dream about..."

And Pasqualino played the most beautiful of the tunes the boys of Taormina know,

A music wide as an horizon, deep as eyes, sensitive as a caressing hand,

A music of longing and sorrow, of dream and hope, of loneliness and communion.

Wilhelm von Gloeden's camera obscura was able to catch the magic of this encounter,

The encounter of a Faun and of a young shepherd from Taormina,

At the turn of a century, at the threshold of two worlds, reality and imagination.

While looking at this photograph, forever I can listen to this forgotten melody,

To the melody of Fauns meeting young shepherds in the most remote wilderness,

Of Fauns falling in love with them, and crossing the invisible border,

The border between gods and humans, between dream and reality,

Between hope and memory,

So far, so deep, at this crossroads where a lover meet his loved one".

Anonymous poet, around 1907, Von Gloeden Archive, 1907, call number 1907/Anon/12

Le Dionysos des confins / Dionysus in Taormina's outskirts

"Cher Wolfgang,

Je vous remercie de votre belle lettre et je suis heureux de savoir que vous êtes bien rentré à Göttingen.
Je suis heureux aussi de savoir que mes photographies vous font rêver et que le soleil de Taormina illumine vos souvenirs...

Vous me dites aimer particulièrement les trois photographies de Peppino, je vous comprends... Je vais vous raconter leur histoire.

J'avais relu les Métamorphoses d'Ovide, les Idylles de Théocrite et les Bacchantes d'Euripide, et il m'est venu l'idée de photographier Peppino loin du village, dans les montagnes de Taormina où ne s'aventurent que les bergers et les brigands. Loin des terres cultivées et des habitations, ces confins sauvages étaient pour les Grecs un territoire où l'on pouvait rencontrer, au détour d'un chemin, un dieu ou une déesse sous l'apparence trompeuse d'un voyageur de grand chemin. L'étranger pouvait surgir à l'improviste, sans que vous l'ayez vu de loin ni entendu approcher...

Malheur au berger imprudent qui manquait de respect à l'étranger !  Il pouvait s'agir d'Hermès, le messager des dieux, ou de Pan, qui s'amuse à inspirer la panique au berger et à ses troupeaux comme aux armées avant la bataille ! Il pouvait s'agir aussi de Dionysos, divinement beau, un jeune étranger qui troublait les femmes des cités et leur faisait courir la campagne aux rythmes de sa musique...

Lorsque Peppino m'a conduit à cette grotte connue de lui seul, je l'ai imaginé en Dionysos, entouré de lierre et de feuillages aux parfums enivrants. Il s'est appuyé au rocher, laissant l'ombre et la lumière sculpter son corps, et avec un imperceptible sourire, a laissé son regard partir au loin...

Imaginez, cher Wolfgang, imaginez qu'au détour d'un chemin, vous rencontriez Dionysos...

Votre ami

Wilhelm von Gloeden"

Von Gloeden Archive, Lettre de W. von Gloeden à Wolfgang von D., call number 1895/06/12/01.

"Dear Wolfgang,

Thanks so much for your beautiful letter: I am happy to know that you are back to Göttingen, I am happy too that my photographs bring you so many pleasant dreams and that Taormina's sun shines for ever in your memory...

You write that you enjoy particularly the three photographs of Peppino, and I share your fascination ! I will tell you the story behind these photographs...

I had just finished reading again Ovid's Metamorphoses, Theocritus Idylls and Euripides Bacchae, and I decided to make a photographic session with Peppino in a remote place, far away from the village, in Taormina's mountains where only shepherds and brigands can be met. Far away from cultivated fields and from any inhabited area, these outskirts, in the wilderness, were for the ancient Greeks a strange land where one could meet a god or a goddess looking like a vagabond. The stranger could appear unexpectedly, without being seen from far away or heard while walking...

Unfortunate was the uncautious shepherds who was not bowing to the stranger in the most respectful manner ! This stranger was perhaps Hermes, the messenger of the gods, or Pan, who had fun while inspiring panic to shepherds or soldiers before a battle ! He could be too Dionysius, beautiful as only gods are, a young stranger who made the women of the city going mad and forced them to run in the wilderness, at the rythm of his music...

Peppino lead me to a cave he is the only one to know. I imagined him as a Sicilian Dionysus, surrounded with ivy and leaves giving off an intoxicating perfume. He leant against the rock, light and shade were sculpting his body. With an imperceptible smile, he looked at the horizon...

Imagine, dear Wolfgang, imagine that along a path in Taormina's wilderness, you encounter Dionysus...

Your friend

Wilhelm von Gloeden"

Von Gloeden Archive, Letter from W. von Gloeden to Wolfgang von D., call number 1895/06/12/01.

Dionysus in Love

Navigating through  the WWW, by chance or because someone planned it, I found an unexpected and pleasant harbour: a place in New York city, between Grand & Canal, exactly 26 Wooster Street, a place called The Leslie / Lohman Gay Art Foundation.

It is a great Art Gallery anyone, gay or not, should visit during his/her stay in New York. It is also a virtual place anyone can visit thanks to the following URL:

leslie/lohman gay art foundation

I was particularly moved and inspired by the exhibition of an Italian artist named Marco Silombria (May 6 - June 27, 2009).

I love the concept of Dionysus in Love. It reminds me a forgotten world of dreams, illusions, desires and madness, resulting from an immoderate use of wine and trance music. Dionysios is this Greek god who loved to appear in wild landscapes where maenads, fauns and satyrs had fun with subverting the existing social order, borders and conventions...

I love this depiction of Dionysus playing on a double flute two melodies, perhaps for two desired ones, or perhaps a first music to be heard while awaken, and the other one while asleep, at the gate of a sweet dream along a loved one... I hear such a sensual music from this young musician with his almond eyes... If I was a poet of the Greek Anthology, I would probably write how jealous I feel of his double flute that is caressed by the hands and the breath, that is kissed by the lips of such a beautiful young god....

I love this other work by the same Italian artist, Marco Silombria. Bunches of grapes as well as the shape of the vase suggest against a Dionysiac context. Is this naked young man frightened of the power of wine, of the way it erases borders between light and darkness, between dream and reality, between desire and social order ?