Igor Savchenko

Alphabet of Gestures
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ON THE ALTERED BEHAVIOUR OF SUNLIGHT
We no longer have
A constant flow of sunlight.
Light appears to us
As a sequence of transient storms.
Everything around us is lit up for brief instants.
The world picture shimmers.
But moments of light and darkness
Still alternate too fast,
For us to notice them.
We still believe
The visible picture is steady.
In fact the storms of sunlight
Blow past more rarely and less regularly.
Darkness has been gathering.
Uncertainty keeps growing.
The visual picture
Is gradually being replaced
By its speculative model.
But this we can only guess at
From indirect signs -
Inexplicable and sudden failures
While photographing the moments which
Miss just another sunlight storm.
We ourselves fail to notice that
Our perception of the world is changing.
We ourselves are changing.
The consequences are not yet clear.

Igor Savchenko
Minsk, February 1996
Russian-English translation: Mark Bence, the author, 1996