WORK
“At the Street Corner”
Maybe my soul’s all right.
But my body’s all wrong,
All bent and twisted,
All this that hurts me so.
My soul keeps trying, trying
To straighten my body up.
It hangs on my skeleton, frantic,
Flapping its terrified wings.
Look here, look at my hands,
They look like little wet toads
After a rainstorm’s over,
Hopping, hopping, hopping.
Maybe God didn’t like
The look of my face when He saw it.
Sometimes a big dog
Looks right into it.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, “Das Lied des Zwerges”
—(translation by David Ferry)
—from Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations
Ferry’s translation might be better called a version or interpretation. See the original and a near-literal translation.
WORD
lagniappe (lan-yap). Noun. A tip, a gratuity or gratuitous addition, something given above what has been earned.
“And more than this, than the revenge, as lagniappe to the revenge as it were, this nosegay of an afternoon, this scentless prairie flower which will not be missed and which might as well bloom in your lapel as in another’s” (William Faulkner, from Absalom, Absalom)
“We picked up one excellent word—a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word: ‘lagniappe’. They pronounce it lanny-yap.” (Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi)
WEB
Related to an entry a few days ago, Smithsonian Magazine has a gallery of 17 Abandoned Places you apparently need to visit before you die. Not sure why they object to visits from the afterlife.
the UK’s Reading Well bibliotherapy program provides books doctors can prescribe for their patients. Should this be expanded to include fiction, poetry, and more?
Writing 225 Words Per Minute. With a pen. The lost art of shorthand.
Today in 1284 the Pied Piper lured away 130 children in the German town of Hamelin. True story?.
As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you: clippings@katexic.com
