In the original nightingale myth, the girl Philomel is raped and her tongue is cut out.
She asks the gods to save her and they transform her into a nightingale.
It’s not a nice story – lust and danger,
rape and pain.
The first ending is tongue-lessness,
the girl unspeaking,
the darkness palpable.
Then the gods intervene,
on a wish and a prayer.
The girl grows feathers,
a beak, a voice –
and what a voice!
She turns the pain into something
outside herself.
We all know the truth of that –
pain released, pain let go.
Pain and more pain till the body’s
emptied out.
Then the way the cello takes it,
carries it on the air –
lightly oh so lightly –
to somewhere else.
