A novel in Verse
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twelveoone
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You're kidding
to a city of bulbs and spikes, Constantinople
where men goose each other and eat off forges in the street.
Soon after, the Kaiser came on board
with crowds of heel-clickers. He wore a resentful snobby look,
electric whiskers in his pink grandpa face, and a helmet like a finial
off a terrace house. We'd to change our caps, he said,
and put on fezes. We were now the Turkish Navy.
Enver Pasha had a haemorrhoid look on him, at that part.
see also
I'll put it on my to do
twelveoone
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it is, I read that part of it, I know what it is about, I know the nothing and I don't want to return (to writing). Last night, I woke up with about six or eight lines, didn't bother to write them down. Hopefully I'll forget them after I put my bluejeans on.
BTW, isn't he the lead singer of Midnight Oil, and I'll see you outside of Alice Springs.
"Ich bin ein Ausländer"
Murray ist
Tzara
Continental
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Not read it. Looked at it. Murray was talked about as a prospect for the Nobel at one time.
But if you've read it (or are reading it), maybe I should too. I trust your taste.
twelveoone
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in case you didn't get the joke
Fredy Neptune describes the experiences of Fred Boettcher, an Australian of German parentage, during the years between the world wars.
an Australian who finds himself on the other side of the line at Gallipoli
a German who stands up for a Jew
Read it with that in mind, an outsider, as jokes go, it wasn't meant to be funny.
I haven't read, nor will I, but Les is a very interesting writer.
While reading, read this http://fleursdumal.org/poem/200
life/the poet as an Albatross. one should bring the other into focus.
butters
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how varied the translations from baudelair's original - some fail (for me) completely. my preference is for Roy Cambell's trans.
L'Albatros
Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.
À peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d'eux.
Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!
Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.
— Charles Baudelaire
The Albatross
Sometimes for sport the men of loafing crews
Snare the great albatrosses of the deep,
The indolent companions of their cruise
As through the bitter vastitudes they sweep.
Scarce have they fished aboard these airy kings
When helpless on such unaccustomed floors,
They piteously droop their huge white wings
And trail them at their sides like drifting oars.
How comical, how ugly, and how meek
Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
One, with his pipe, teases the golden beak,
One, limping, mocks the cripple as he goes.
The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,
Despising archers, rides the storm elate.
But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.
— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)
twelveoone
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bumped-well?
a report?
a report?
Desejo
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In the top 5 of my reads this year -- and I read too much (I am at around 95 books this year, not including work related reports and studies).
Historical, comical, educational and written in exceptional language that tells enough to keep you intrigued, but not so much as to bore you or be predictable.
Historical, comical, educational and written in exceptional language that tells enough to keep you intrigued, but not so much as to bore you or be predictable.
twelveoone
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really, me too, but none of mine had spines
(and I aint talkin kindle - now why would they call it that, think about it, scary, eh?)
I would be interested on your take on this, since Les is bouncing off a lot of history that most people know nothing about.
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