... or not

Vain endevour

It's nothing to discuss;
It's nothing to fight for;
there is no need to explain -
there are always two.

If there's just one,
all words are vain.

It's nothing to discuss;
It's nothing to fight for;
there is no need to explain -

if there is just one,
love is vain.

Masken - Masks

Gibt es ihn noch
so wie er einst war?
Ich denke, doch -
nur nimmt er es nicht wahr.

Er will es einfach nicht.
Um keinen Preis der Welt
zeigt er sein Gesicht -
er hat sich selbst enstellt.

hrj, 1972

- - -

Does he still exist
as once he was?
I think, yes -
but he does not sense it.

He just doesn't want to.
Not for love nor money
he'd show his face -
he has disfaced himself.

sj, 2009

Strawberry Finn

Berry sitting on a stone,
pondering his otherness
comes to following decision:
I am here, I have a mission.

Dreaming of enormous fame,
Strawless Berry will set out,
find the origin of his name.

But - alas - Seanhenge is mazy,
and soon Berry is quite sure:
"Golly gosh, I am so crazy!"

Next moment, it's getting hazy,

Berry's heart is beating wild.
And the reason? A sweet Daisy.

Desillusion, fading power:

Sad and lonely on his quest
Berry's taking a next rest
on a soft and friendly flower.

Continuing his quest
to find the mystic Straw
Berry takes another rest.

And here magic strikes:

Sitting lazy in the tyre,
enjoying warmth of distant fire:
Strawless Berry and his Daisy.

And the moral of the story:
nothing can cut love in twain.
'cause thus spake Daisy:
"Names are in vain,
otherness is no sin,
my sweet ... Strawberry Finn."

humbly dedicated to the Topaz of Poetry
by Mc Seanagall

Natural Arts II

China's Charter 08

To cut it short:
Here's China's Charter 08.

And for those who want to compare
the English version with the original - voilà.

Liu Xiaobo

What about Bagram, Mr Obama?

Allegations of abuse and neglect at a US detention facility in Afghanistan have been uncovered by the BBC.
A number of former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at the Bagram military base.
The BBC spoke to 27 ex-inmates around the country over two months. Just two said they had been treated well.
The Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.
All the men were asked the same questions and they were all interviewed in isolation.

Full article and video here.

It seems patently correct to say that the current Ex-President to-be of The U.S.A. is not as debicile as his predecessor, but as evil as his predecessor's masters - as long as he does not immediately change what he promised when he was a would-be presidential candidate.

The peace of the night!

The Bastards of "Freedom City"

One of China's most prominent political activists has been formally arrested for inciting subversion.
Liu Xiaobo is accused of spreading rumours and defaming the government, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.
Mr Liu's arrest comes six months after he was taken into custody.
He was detained just before the publication of a document that he co-authored calling for political change in China.
Full article here.

And here a tiny example why this rotten bunch of mighty criminal and corrupt cowards, the Bastards of Beijing* (this time without asterisk!), fear and suppress people like this man whose courage I do admire since 1989.
Free speech for Mr. Liu.

More information inclusive a longer France 24-interview with Liu Xiaobo is offered by Reporters without Borders.

What about Order 81, Mr. Obama?

US President Barack Obama has strongly condemned the "unjust actions" of Iran in clamping down on election protests.
He said he respected Iran's sovereignty and it was "patently false" of Iran to say the West was fomenting the unrest.
Full article here.

Well spoken, Mr. Obama.

By the way, what about the sovereignty of farmers? F. e. in Iraq?!

I did not hear, yet, that Order 81 was declared null and void.

In case he did not - despite claiming "Yes, I can!" - moreover, does not at all intend to, Mr. Obama will surely agree it were patently correct to say that the current Ex-President of the U.S.A. to-be except of being a bit more eloquent than his debicile predecessor is also nothing but a puppet for those who are said to have written the specific details of Order 81 on plants for the US Government - the Masters of Monsanto Corporation.

- - -

The link above gives you the complete text (pdf) of Order 81.

Here's a bit information about 'Monsanto's govenor in Iraq' when by the so-called Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2003 the so-called 100 Orders were imposed on the Iraqi people.
You'll stumble upon names of quite a few criminals who together would easily equal 69,000 years prison if before the law everybody were equal.

The peace of the night.

Cash as cash can ...

[...]
European agriculture ministers approved the sale of milk and meat from the direct offspring of cloned animals on Monday. Germany had long opposed the move, but finally changed its position.

Full article here.

Well, and in case you do not already know where once again corks will be popping - just check amongst the labels for this post.

A voice from (?) Iran

Although I'd not like the Iranian people to get rid of their brutal, cynic, hypocritical and intolerant regime only to end under the knout of another group of fanatics*, I do offer this link.

h/t internation musings

*Mind you, the (courageous) altruists and idealists who'd help to overcome a suppressing regime would mostly not be those who set the rules for the future, as - again: mostly ... the revolution will eat its children.


PS: The questionmark in the title is there just to mark that I cannot veryfy the 'from'.

Caught in the very act!

Copulating Chrysolina coerolans

The headline could also have been "Scandal in Seanhenge!"
Mind you, not that I'd begrudge anybody having a bit fun. Neither I do find scandalous they do it - so to speak - on (what's supposed to become) our peppermint tea. The scandal is: They eat what we want to drink.

If this does not immediately stop ... correction: As this will (naturally) not stop, after the shortest night of the year I shall interrupt this very coitus.

PS: Be sure I will feel most uncomfortable by the thought someone could do the same to me. ... Ah, this would be, indeed, scandalous. ...

Feeling flattered, Miss T.

Seanberry's

Well, just imagine this were ...

... the last strawberry of this year - which it is not :)

Here's waiting the future red currant jelly.

Ah, how beautiful ... how delicious ...

... and the morello cherries, ...

... and ... ah! the black currant ...

... well, and about two weeks later I shall run
the risk to fall off the ladder when
picking - almost :) - the sweetest of all cherries.

A perfect story

The perfect story contains - as everybody knows - of sex, crime, politics, religion and nobility.
Voilà:
I believe the thyme spake to the wasp: It's no crime when you take me deep, Mylady.


And may I assure you that by telling we had lousy few strawberries this year, so that we not even once had strawberry cake with whipped cream up til now, nor made 25 glasses of strawberryberry jam, nor ate any just so or with milk or with whipped cream, I am as honest as Ajatollah Khamenei, Barak Osama and Vladimir Putin (please add any name you come to think of).

Summer in Seanhenge

Like any day I could focus tonight on what happens / happened in the world - generally and in particular. And yes: Almost every day my fingers go all tingly.
However, for several reasons I do mostly - like this evening - calm my fingers down.
Firstly, as I assume that most visitors do follow the news and mainly because those who are following this blog in the past two years will find it not difficult to imagine what I think about this and that, anyway.
So let me end this with what you will also know: I am thankful (ha ha, please don't ask this agnostic to whom ...) that no loving or not-loving mother in China, Ruanda, U.S.A., Iran or Russia (to name but a few countries*) let me see the world, but that I was and (still) am allowed to live where I am ... to live another summer in what once I started to call Seanhenge.

Sean's rowan

Gentian

Poppies

Buttercup

Zinnia

Jasmine

Campanula Persicifolia Blue

Fuchsias & Geranium

Lilies& Aquilelia

*Those who think they found an interesting point to discuss are wholeheartedly invited to (politely) attack me. :)

Rose is not rose is ...

... not rose, in so far as they are so different, hm? :)

Far be it from me, though, to contradict Gertrude Stein who in a certain context coined the phrase 'A rose is a rose is a rose'.

So, please don't feel metagobrolized*.

Actually, I chose the title just in order not to plagiarise jmb.






* with thanks to Stan. By the way, those who wish to join us on our humble quest to resurrect this rose amongst words, are most welcome. Just sign in via the comment-section to this brilliant article.

Just in case you don't know ...

... what day we have.

Ah, a Joycean you might think. Well, there's also one book to be seen that's not written by or about Joyce.
It is said had he not been ding-dong Joyce would have written like this very gentleman. :)

Click to enlarge.

Related posts:

• Mrs Blooms 105th 33rd
  

When the mirror speaks the truth

Germany 1953, Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Chile 1973-1990, Argentina 1976-1983 , etc. etc. ..., not to forget the so-called Congo-Crisis which by no means ended in 1966, Cambodia 1975-1979, Ruanda 1994 etc. etc. ...

... (almost) whenever criminals in power are being told by their people they are not the fairest in the land, they do behave like a certain stepmother.

And now in Iran?

To cut it short, as you will know the latest news:
The Iranian opposition is said to claim (regarding to their reliable sources within the interior ministry) Mousavi got 19 m votes, Ahmadinejad less than 6 m.
Given that comes close to the truth it is doubtable that the official result could be prepared without Khamenei's placet.

Still ... I'd like what right now is happening in Iran to end like what happened in Europe in 1989 rather than what happened on the Place of Heavenly Peace.

I really hope so, the more as one can hear from so-call US-strategy think tanks they'd prefer Ahmahdinejad to remain in power, as (whatever) sanctions would be easier to launch.
Same goes obviously with the falcons in Israel.

Flowers in Love

As I like it

Thyme is her theme

Now, who dies first?*

* The Masters of War (and I mean all of them - those who are and those to come) or ... hope?

Love is not all

After Yeats - for a beginning - Chris chose a poetess:

So head over to God-free Morals and enjoy listening to Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Gore's greatest gesture

The United States government and Western rights groups protested* today after North Korea’s highest court sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of hard labo(u)r [and re-education; sj].

The two journalists [from Current TV; sj] — Laura King and Euna Lee — were detained by North Korean soldiers at the Chinese border on March 17 and charged with illegally entering North Korean territory and "hostile acts," but not with the more serious charge of espionage as some had feared**.
Full NYT-article here.

You'll find mentioned that Al Gore, the knight in the rainbow-coloured armour who's greatest success in his struggle to save the planet is to be found on his different bank accounts, is co-founder of Current TV.
Further you'll read that Mr Gore claims he has been 'deeply involved every single day' [since March 17th; sj] to free the journalists, and is being mentioned as a possible special envoy.

What is not mentioned is that the honourable Mr. Gore after consultations with his PR-advisors is going to offer serving 24 years in said labour and re-education camp, in exchange for the two ladies.
A noble gesture, would you agree?

- - -

* Now that will teach them!

** Well why else would they've got such a mild punishment?

Expounder of the soul

On his 190th birthday (May 31st) I posted what could be taken as Walt Whitman's legacy to Poets to come.
And here's - as announced - one by a 'poet who came' :)

Il Poeta*

Si dilata il sé
in un'intricata visione
di sogni sospesi:
il reale si scioglie
in mille rivoli
di un policromo prisma,
illuminato da un sole,
eternamente presente
tra i chiaroscuri della vita.

The Poet

He expounds the soul
in a tangled vision
of abandoned dreams:
reality melts
into the thousand streams
of an many-coloured prism,
lit by the sun
which is always there
amidst the light and shade of life.

* from Il Profumo del Pensiero / The Essence of Thoughts
Poems by Antonio Lonardo with English translations by Pat Eggleton.

The crooked Timber of Humanity

Many years out of print, on the occasion of Isaiah Berlin's 100th anniversary that marks today there's a new German edition of The Crooked Timber of Humanity available: Das krumme Holz der Humanität (Berlin Verlag, 430 S., 19,90 Euro).
And Suhrkamp published Der Igel und der Fuchs (105 S., 12,80 Euro), i.e The Hedgehog and the Fox.


Interesting reads I can tell you.

For those who got intrigued and would like to dive a bit deeper I commend The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library.

May I introduce you to ...

... Teresa Magolles?


Well, and here's a bit :) more.

Fancy for dancing? :)

Although personally I do prefer this

I am also fascinated by that kind of dancing. (They are giving guest performances in Germany these days)



Well, and sometimes I like Dancing barefoot.


Did I tell that I am a lousy dancer?

If you've got two bottles of wine ...

If you are in possession of two pairs of trousers
sell one and buy this book.
Lichtenberg

Now would I not go so far as the old ingenious hunchback, but ...

... I know what's better than drinking two bottles of wine:

One bottle of wine and ... a good book. Good poetry, for example.

Now, please don't ask what the criteria for a good book are , what those for good poetry.
And: Need I tell that you don't have to empty both - the bottle and the book - during one night? :)
But: Opening one bottle - in this very case I'd commend one of those fine Sicilian drops - and to enjoy the spirit of both the pressed grapes and the expressed thoughts - that comes next to ... :)

Alright then: During the coming days I shall - with the permission of the author and his congenial translator - post some poems.
Do I like them all? That's not the question.
Sometimes I consider a book or a (long) poem worth its price 'cause of but one tiny sentence.

In this very book, though, there are to be found many good thoughts. So many good thoughts, indeed, that I do wish that Pegasus may offer the duo (poet and translator) many more of such poetic rides.

'Ha!' I do hear some of those spirits who'd love to (almost) always deny: 'How could someone who does not speak English fluently commend a book which roots are Italian?'

Although my Italian is slightly rudimental, having translated a few poems from Italian into English and German, I think I am at least able to recognise the quality of a translation.

Which is why - to cut it short! - I am varying what the ingenious hunchback (look above) demanded :)

If you are in possession of two bottles of wine
sell one and buy this book

Il Profumo del Pensiero / The Essence of Thoughts
Poems by Antonio Lonardo with English translations by Pat Eggleton.
Parallel text. 8 euros plus p&p.
ISBN: 978-88-96255-25-4.

And perhaps easier may be to contact Welshcakes via email:
lasiciliana629 at hotmail dot com

So, just do it. :)

- - - - -


Here a few links to some poems posted by Welshcakes in Italian and English. Enjoy.

Distanze / Distances

Ricera / Search

Esistenziale Itinerario / Existential Itinerary

Analogiche Differenze / Analogical Differences

But without words Omnium is ...

... (almost) nothing.

Words are not Omnium