WORK
People possess four things
that are no good at sea:
anchor, rudder, oars
and the fear of going down.
—Antonio Machado (translated by Robert Bly)
—from The Sea and the Honeycomb: A Book of Tiny Poems
In his later book of Machado translations Times Alone, Bly translated the first line as “Mankind owns four things.” I like the earlier version better.
WORD(S)
villeggiatura /vil-lə-djə-TYəR-ə/. noun. A country residence; a rural retreat suitable for a holiday; a holiday spent in such a place. From Italian villeggiare (to reside in a country villa). Reader J. writes of the word that “as a country-born person who’s spent much of his life in cities, it cracked a kind of nostalgia nut in me—the idea of ‘going back to the village’ is where it took me.”
“Thus in consequence of her mother’s heroic proceedings, and of her brother’s absence on this villegiature, Mrs Verloc found herself oftener than usual all alone not only in the shop, but in the house.” (Joseph Conrad)
“I don’t wonder that she hates the country; I dare to say her child does not owe its existence to the Villeggiatura.” (Horace Walpole)
“Strolling the Hundred Fountains on a hot Roman afternoon, shaded by centuries-old trees and soothed by the gurgle and splash of water, one comes to understand the exalted place of villeggiatura in the Italian soul.” (Thomas Campanella)
“Add to this a multitude of green shutters and striped awnings, and a mass of Virginia creepers and wisterias, and fling over it the lavish light of the American summer, and you have a notion of some of the conditions of our villeggiatura.” (Henry James)
“We penetrate bodily this incredible beauty; we dip our hands in this painted element; our eyes are bathed in these lights and forms. A holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the proudest, most heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, power and taste, ever decked and enjoyed, establishes itself on the instant.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
WEB
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When a Bookstore Closes, an Argument Ends [Thanks, Reader C.!]
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Maciej Ceglowski is creating a great travelogue as he travels through Yemen (and I love his site slogan: ‘brevity is for the weak’).
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Watch the ► trailer for the upcoming Stanford Prison Experiment film. Looks a little over the top but entertaining. And…Ezra Miller!
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Paul Ford on the “No to” poem, a collaboratively written litany of sorts, an anaphora poem, a poem of our time in so (too?) many ways.
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Today in 1812, the United States declares war on Great Britain. There were many reasons behind the decision to take on the greatest naval force in the world including the impressment, ongoing trade restrictions and the seemingly insatiable desire for territorial expansion…none of which were to change much despite a three-front battle along the American-Canadian frontier and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that claimed more than 15,000 American lives. As historian James Loewen put it, “the American Indians were the only real losers in the war.” The War of 1812 was more important in the American mind than it was for the British, who were busy dealing with Napoleon. In fact, today in 1812 also marks the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, in which nearly 50,000 soldiers were killed.
WATCH/WITNESS
View an album of “fiction-artist” Gennady Golobokov’s speculative fiction illustrations
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader B. writes: <<hearing Ulysses is even better than reading it. The best version I know of is the Naxos AudioBooks edition>> ¶ I wholeheartedly agree!
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Has Reader S. discovered the next Joyce? He writes: My son’s comment on this was “it’s like reading James Joyce, only harder to understand.” I think I agree. It’s an interesting exercise, anyway: http://ktxc.to/trump-2016-transcript
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