In all the devious tracing the course of a sailing ship
leaves upon the white paper of a chart
she is always aiming for that one little spot
- maybe a small island in the ocean,
a single headland upon the long coast of a continent,
a light-house on a bluff,
or simply the peaked form
of a mountain like an ant heap
afloat upon the waters.
But if you have sighted it on the expected bearing,
then the landfall is good.
Joseph Conrad
__________________________
Perdidos en la bruma
de un puerto amarillento,
armábamos
castillos de palabras y sueños.
Silvia Pezzini
__________________________
Just as in a stormy sea, unbounded in every direction, rising and falling with howling mountainous waves, a sailor sits in a boat and trusts his frail barque.
Friedrich Nietzsche
__________________________
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
My Favorite Words 6: The Machine
Never mind the machinery. Remember the men. The men make the machines, and they make their own tragedies too.
Harvey Swados.
__________________________
Man created the machine.
A machine does not feel love, hate or fear; it does not suffer from ulcers, heart attacks or emotional disturbances.
Perhaps man's only chance of survival is to become a machine.
Some men have succeeded.
A machine who passes for a man often rules societies--a dictator is a power machine in his country. A dedicated artist can turn into a talent machine.
Sometimes this evolution occurs without the man realizing it.
Jacqueline Susan
__________________________
La máquina acosa a los jóvenes: Los encierra, tortura, mata. Ellos son la prueba viva de su impotencia. Los expulsa: Los vende, carne humana, brazos baratos, al extranjero.
La máquina, estéril, odia todo lo que crece y se mueve. Sólo es capaz de multiplicar las prisiones y los cementerios.
No puede producir otra cosa que presos y cadáveres, espías y policías, mendigos y desterrados.
Ser joven es un delito. La realidad comete ese delito todos los días, a la hora de la alborada; y también la historia, que cada mañana nace de nuevo.
Por eso la realidad y la historia están prohibidas.
Eduardo Galeano
__________________________
Flashing lights, rattling scoreboard - there was a voluptuous Amazon on the painted display above, which announced FIRE QUEEN in gaudy fairground calligraphy. The boy's beatific wide eyes flickered as the tumblers clicked and the numbers rolled. Trying for the bonus ball. More than a game of chance - not the fruit machine or the one-armed bandit, there's no solid currency to be gained, only the pleasure of winning. A rarefied skill that could only be developed in the inverse work ethic of Playland. An industrial trade of sorts, a mystery if you like. Like all skilled work it permits the human to imagine that he is working the machine, not the other way around.
Jake Arnott
__________________________
Harvey Swados.
__________________________
Man created the machine.
A machine does not feel love, hate or fear; it does not suffer from ulcers, heart attacks or emotional disturbances.
Perhaps man's only chance of survival is to become a machine.
Some men have succeeded.
A machine who passes for a man often rules societies--a dictator is a power machine in his country. A dedicated artist can turn into a talent machine.
Sometimes this evolution occurs without the man realizing it.
Jacqueline Susan
__________________________
La máquina acosa a los jóvenes: Los encierra, tortura, mata. Ellos son la prueba viva de su impotencia. Los expulsa: Los vende, carne humana, brazos baratos, al extranjero.
La máquina, estéril, odia todo lo que crece y se mueve. Sólo es capaz de multiplicar las prisiones y los cementerios.
No puede producir otra cosa que presos y cadáveres, espías y policías, mendigos y desterrados.
Ser joven es un delito. La realidad comete ese delito todos los días, a la hora de la alborada; y también la historia, que cada mañana nace de nuevo.
Por eso la realidad y la historia están prohibidas.
Eduardo Galeano
__________________________
Flashing lights, rattling scoreboard - there was a voluptuous Amazon on the painted display above, which announced FIRE QUEEN in gaudy fairground calligraphy. The boy's beatific wide eyes flickered as the tumblers clicked and the numbers rolled. Trying for the bonus ball. More than a game of chance - not the fruit machine or the one-armed bandit, there's no solid currency to be gained, only the pleasure of winning. A rarefied skill that could only be developed in the inverse work ethic of Playland. An industrial trade of sorts, a mystery if you like. Like all skilled work it permits the human to imagine that he is working the machine, not the other way around.
Jake Arnott
__________________________
Saturday, May 12, 2007
That Thing of the Poets 3: Absence
Enquanto a chuva bate forte no telhado
os carros transitam apressadamente pelas avenidas;
Pessoas se encontram nos cruzamentos/
num vai e vem do verde do sinal;
mendigos tentando um abrigo da chuva
aos transeuntes pedem um trocado qualquer;
as lojas fechando/
deixando à mostra apenas as vitrines;
um homem faz sinal pro taxi.
É quase madrugada;
percorro todas as ruas
e não encontro você.
Consuelo Moreira
__________________________
os carros transitam apressadamente pelas avenidas;
Pessoas se encontram nos cruzamentos/
num vai e vem do verde do sinal;
mendigos tentando um abrigo da chuva
aos transeuntes pedem um trocado qualquer;
as lojas fechando/
deixando à mostra apenas as vitrines;
um homem faz sinal pro taxi.
É quase madrugada;
percorro todas as ruas
e não encontro você.
Consuelo Moreira
__________________________
My Favorite Words 5: Encountered Viewpoints
All a man ever really thinks would go on a half sheet of note paper.
The rest is just elaboration.
Ezra Pound
__________________________
It is worthwhile writing down everything
Dr. Johnson (paraphrase)
__________________________
The rest is just elaboration.
Ezra Pound
__________________________
It is worthwhile writing down everything
Dr. Johnson (paraphrase)
__________________________
My Favorite Words 4: Existentialist
Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
Albert Camus
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Albert Camus
__________________________
My Favorite Words 3: Grafittiero
The art world is the biggest joke going. It’s a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak.
Banksy
__________________________
Banksy
__________________________
That Thing of the Poets 2
Reminder of a Life
If I were told:
By evening you will die
so what will you do until then?
I would look at my wristwatch,
I ‘d drink a glass of juice,
bite an apple,
contemplate at length an ant that has found its food,
then look at my wristwatch.
There’d be time left to shave my beard
and dive in a bath, obsess:
”There must be an adornment for writing,
so let it be a blue garment.”
I’d sit until noon alive at my desk
but wouldn’t see the trace of color in the words,
white, white, white…
I’d prepare my last lunch,
pour wine in two glasses: one for me
and one for the one who will come without appointment,
then I’d take a nap between two dreams.
But my snoring would wake me…
so I’d look at my wristwatch: and there’d be time left for reading.
I’d read a chapter in Dante and half of a mu’allaqah
and see how my life goes from me
to the others, but I wouldn’t ask who
would fill what’s missing in it.
That’s it’ then?
That’s it, that’s it.
Then what?
Then I’d comb my hair and throw away the poem…
this poem, in the trash,
and put on the latest fashion in Italian shirts,
parade myself in an entourage of Spanish violins,
and walk to the grave!
Mahmoud Darwish
Translated, from the Arabic, by Fady Joudah.
__________________
If I were told:
By evening you will die
so what will you do until then?
I would look at my wristwatch,
I ‘d drink a glass of juice,
bite an apple,
contemplate at length an ant that has found its food,
then look at my wristwatch.
There’d be time left to shave my beard
and dive in a bath, obsess:
”There must be an adornment for writing,
so let it be a blue garment.”
I’d sit until noon alive at my desk
but wouldn’t see the trace of color in the words,
white, white, white…
I’d prepare my last lunch,
pour wine in two glasses: one for me
and one for the one who will come without appointment,
then I’d take a nap between two dreams.
But my snoring would wake me…
so I’d look at my wristwatch: and there’d be time left for reading.
I’d read a chapter in Dante and half of a mu’allaqah
and see how my life goes from me
to the others, but I wouldn’t ask who
would fill what’s missing in it.
That’s it’ then?
That’s it, that’s it.
Then what?
Then I’d comb my hair and throw away the poem…
this poem, in the trash,
and put on the latest fashion in Italian shirts,
parade myself in an entourage of Spanish violins,
and walk to the grave!
Mahmoud Darwish
Translated, from the Arabic, by Fady Joudah.
__________________
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