Because of life circumstances, last Saturday i had the rare privilege of attending to a monk’s burial at La Oliva monastery. This cistercian abbey, has a really impressive XIIth century temple, because of its beauty, sobriety and size; its floor plant is bigger than, for example, Pamplona’s cathedral one.
To go with the corpse from the temple to the graveyard, gave me the opportunity of seeing areas normally restricted to public access like the vegetable gardens, Saint Jesus Christ chapel or the cemetary itself, as they are part of the enclosure areas.
This ceremony gave me a bunch of images and feelings that i’ve tried to communicate on the haikus/senryuus that you can read following. As well, to make the most of this trip, after the funeral i visited the rest of the abbey: the cloister, the ruins of the old monastery, … From this visit i have other images and haikus that i’ll share with you later this week. Enjoy them.
—o0o—
smell of incense
and the chant of the monks
at the burial
—o0o—
head towards the altar,
white like his habit
rests the dead
—o0o—
all the looks down,
unhurried walk
on their way to the graveyard
—o0o—
(a haiku that evolved to tanka)
a magpie caws,
the monks singing psalms
beside the grave
cypresses shaked by the wind
and silence returns
—o0o—
beside the grave
a handful of people and cold,
rest in peace
—o0o—
wrought-iron crosses,
just soil and no flowers
on the burial mounds
