Brigitte Williams
On Friday 8 March 2019 St Oswald’s Church was filled with family members, present
and previous members of the congregation, those of faith or of no faith, friends and
neighbours representing many cultural backgrounds.
This gathering was led by Rev Lesley-ann to celebrate the life of Brigitte Ida
Stefanie Williams who died on 25 March 2019.
Brigitte had prepared her final wishes, written her own eulogy.
The poem is taken from the Order of Service, which was read in German during the
service.
Many will of course have to die down there
Where the heavy oars of the ships weep
Others reside above near the helm
Aware of the migration of the birds and the lands of the stars.
Many lie always with heavy limbs
At the roots of a life intertwined
Others have seats prepared for them
With the sibyls, the queens
And sit there as if at home
With a giddy head and light hands.
But a shadow falls from those lives
Across and into the other’s lives
And the light are bound to the heavy
As the air is bound to the earth.
The weariness of peoples quite forgotten
I cannot banish from my eyelids
Neither can I keep away from my terrified soul
The silent descent of distant stars.
Many fates weave alongside my own
All are interconnected by a common existence
And my part is more than simply this life’s
Slender flame or narrow lyre.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Manche freilich (1895-96)
In: Ausgewahlte Werke in zwei Banden
Vol 1. P 22 (S. H. transl)
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