Tuesday, 12 August 2014

pearly






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6 comments:

  1. Miriam18 August 2014 at 18:54

    pearly indeed:)cred ca nu ma insel cand spun ca am una asemanatoare,tot de acolo-e de la mosie,nu,am recunoscut textura perdelelor; ca si cand lumea s-ar filtra,tot mai si tot mai subtil printr-un desen in care exita doar perdele si ,ghicita,lumina

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  2. Prospero18 August 2014 at 20:46

    By pure chance, i think, i heard Pearl Bailey on the radio today. She is no doubt watching us from a window high up on her castle of clouds.

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    1. Roxana19 August 2014 at 16:53

      really??? such a pearly coincidence :-) i must confess i wanted another title, but when i discover that the wonderful romanian word that i wanted would have "mother of pearl" as equivalent in english, i gave up! mother of pearl! use that in a poem frrrr.

      french has also a lovely word for it, "nacre". try to translate this into English:

      Dans le fronton d’un temple antique,
      Deux blocs de marbre ont, trois mille ans,
      Sur le fond bleu du ciel attique
      Juxtaposé leurs rêves blancs ;

      Dans la même nacre figées,
      Larmes des flots pleurant Vénus,
      Deux perles au gouffre plongées
      Se sont dit des mots inconnus ;

      (from Theophile Gautier)

      i found an (excellent) translation by Agnes Lee, and it evidently doesn't include "mother of pearl":

      On an ancient temple gleaming,
      Two great blocks of marble high
      Thrice a thousand years lay dreaming
      Dreams against an Attic sky.

      Set within one silver whiteness,
      Two wave-tears for Venus shed,
      Two fair pearls of orient brightness,
      Through the waste of water sped.

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  3. James Owens19 August 2014 at 22:00

    it _is_ an excellent translation (though i miss those "mots inconnus" of the last line!) ... but, as we have been discussing, it is a kind of magic, that she finds both the perfect rhythm and the perfect rhyme for these lines :-)

    your photograph .. ah, this was my mother's house :-) if i pull these curtains aside, i will see myself through the window, age six, or so ...

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    1. Roxana22 August 2014 at 15:37

      haha - i was lamenting the loss of those "mots inconnus" as well :-)
      it seems that nowhere we can have it all, not even in an _excellent_ translation (or i should say: especially in a poetic translation :-)

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