Lehna is a soulful singer from Paris.  She graced the Gregor Samsa bookshop in Ghent last night.

There is the voice.  There is the beauty of the songs.  Both pale, I think, in the transmission of spirit.  First we the audience need to be touched by the aura of music.  We need to be taught … in a most mysterious way.

Lehna soared in the melody, her head thrown back in the trance of joining with the story, with the songwriter.  She sang in Portuguese, French, Spanish and English.  She reached me in all four, with the words being known in only one.

Lehna sang the song of the prostitute … the sorrow.  After the concert, I asked her what the woman was saying:

Prostitutes who die full of sperm and tears

At the first hour of the day

Prostitutes who are born in blood and tenderness

And the pain of women

Oh … the sadness.

Lehna knows that her mission of love is expressed deeply in her singing and playing. Her eyes go wide. The volume of her voice rises. Her fingers fly on the strings.

Near the end of the first set, through the door walks one of the best guitarists I’ve ever heard. His name is Djalt. At the break, he played Lehna’s guitar while she sang. It was magical.

***

It was a privilege to accompany the music and the musician yesterday

And may the privileges continue …