TE23 Double Feature

Tomas Espedal

The Year

or another time I can’t stop thinking

because the large dogs

sense me as a threat and drive me away I must go back the way I’ve come and now the sheep farmer and his dogs drive the flock off the pasture across the road towards the farm that sits on a knoll by the river just south of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. I arrive in the evening hungry thirsty tired in that good way it’s dark and the small village shines a string of lights is suspended on wires above the restaurants by the River Sorgue. I find a table white tablecloth white napkins in the semi-darkness filled with voices running water the river so clear and transparent the headwaters of the spring at Vaucluse and here by the riverside I order veal and potatoes a bottle of wine. I ask the waiter if there’s a place I can sleep you can sleep here he says 139

about how beautiful they are the workers the Africans as all poor people are beautiful in my eyes I see the way they crawl through the fields like the animals sheep cow goat horse they graze here where the road forms a bend The old man looks like a scarecrow he walks behind a large flock of sheep with a whistle in his mouth a wide-brimmed hat homespun clothes thick boots a hard unshaven face he’s got three large dogs for protection against predators three smaller sheepdogs which keep the flock together as it moves they’re so well controlled that I stand there spellbound by the beauty of this performance which is primeval spellbound and frightened 138 and I’m brought to a stop by a dog a shepherd’s dog.