Alexandra Ponomarev

Russia, 1957

Semaphore Residency #4
Retreat residency, linked to the context of the Créac’h semaphore in Ouessant.

June & July 2010
Ouessant

How good it is to sit on a lighthouse
And watch the changing weather.
Here is the sun, fading,
Burning out in the distance,
And the ocean, rippling,
Its waters the color of ash.
The sea lends a hand
To the sunlit air,
While the wind divides
The light into spectrums in an instant.
The arch of the rainbow
Will cover the entire island,
And scraps of foam
Will scatter with the wind.

And then the fog
Will appear before the windows,
And the foghorns will echo
Through the dark.
Above, a hurricane
Will suddenly start to howl,
Below, the waves
Will crash against the rocks.
In the distance, hundreds
Of docile sheep graze,
Chewing grass
Where cliffs, reefs, and shoals lie,
Where so many humans
Met their end,
Failing to make it around our island.
Today, a great lighthouse stands here.
Seek the light of the lighthouses
While you are alive.
Here, they tell you to see our island,
To see your own blood
Flowing in your veins
As ships pass by.
Captains watch us
Through their binoculars.
To them, we are a sign
That land is near,
A simple piece of information
On the shoals and the mist.
Look into the distance,
For there is a reason to do so.
There is a whole world out there.
It lights up and burns to the end.
So look at the horizon—
There, a ray of hope never fades.
Alexandre Ponomarev