Monday, May 18, 2009

Voyage into the Brain

The following is an excerpt from one of the most fascinating documentaries I've been watching in many years. Expedition ins Gehirn / A Voyage into the Brain.

Wondrous paths ...

Sometimes the paths of thinking are ... wondrous; and not easily are they to describe.

To cut it short: When following the glorious links Stan offered in the comment section to A statue for Gülsüm! suddenly I thought of this woman. Why?

Well, look above. :)

Anyway, here's something to listen and ... think about.

Monday, Monday

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Young May Moon


The young May moon is beaming, love,
The glow - worm's lamp is gleaming, love;
How sweet to rove
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! - the heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, my dear;
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!

Now all the world is sleeping, love,
But the Sage, his star - watch keeping, love,
And I, whose star
More glorious far
Is the eye from that casement peeping, love.
Then awake! - till rise of sun, my dear,
The Sage's glass we'll shun, my dear,
Or in watching the flight
Of bodies of light
He might happen to take thee for one, my dear!

Thomas Moore

Friday, May 15, 2009

Echo


How sweet the answer Echo makes
To Music at night
When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,
And far away o'er lawns and lakes
Yet Love hath echoes truer far
And far more sweet
Than e'er, beneath the moonlight's star,
Of horn or lute or soft guitar
The songs repeat.

'Tis when the sigh, - in youth sincere
And only then,
The sigh that's breathed for one to hear -
Is by that one, that only dear
Breathed back again.

Thomas Moore

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A statue for Gülsüm!

A cow in the village of Kadiruşağı in the eastern province of Malatya has been sent to a neighboring village because its owner feared she would be punished for the animal knocking down a statue (of Atatürk; Omnium) in the local schoolyard.

The accident caused the local education department to launch a formal inquiry into the matter, frightening the cow’s owner, Gül Kılınç, who said she had sold the animal, named Gülsüm, to a friend in the neighboring village of İnekpınarı to wait out the inquiry.
[...] "Officials came and took our testimony. Almost every member of the village was questioned"* [...].

* emphasise mine

More about this absolutely shocking incident at Hürriyet.

As Turkishness is unrivalled,
I do fear this cow is a poor sow.

It might be interesting, though, to interview her and the author o
r journalist, Gülsüm might soon share a prison cell with.


Meanwhile, in a poll amongst cows worldwide, 99,98 percent mooed:
"A statue for Gülsüm!



Related articles (warmly commended):
Spreading Mr. Kemal's news (Part I of an exclusive interview with the late Atatürk)