2009年1月19日 星期一

Outside the window by Thomas Hardy, delf

Outside the window


"My stick!" he says, and turns in the lane
To the house just left, whence a vixen voice
Comes out with the firelight through the pane,
And he sees within that the girl of his choice
Stands rating her mother with eyes aglare
For something said while he was there.

"At last I behold her soul undraped!"
Thinks the man who had loved her more than himself;
"My God--'tis but narrowly I have escaped. -
My precious porcelain proves it delf."
His face has reddened like one ashamed,
And he steals off, leaving his stick unclaimed.


Authorship

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

* by Zenobia P. Perry , "Outside the window" [choral suite: choir of young voices (SATB) and piano], from Choral Suite no. 1


delftware

The earliest delftware was a faience, a heavy, brown earthenware with opaque white glaze and polychrome decoration, made in the late 16th cent. Some of the earliest imitations of Chinese and Japanese porcelain were made at Delft in the 17th cent. Delft was important as a pottery center from the mid-17th cent. to the end of the 18th cent. By 1850 little of the industry survived. The name delft is also often applied to the wares of similar nature made in 17th-century London, Bristol, and Liverpool.




Hap - a poem by Thomas Hardy

Hardy Thomas - Poem


If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about m

Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse By Thomas Hardy

Sala delle Muse: Houses the group statues of Apollo and the nine muses.

La Sala delle Muse


Rome: The Vatican--Sala Delle Muse (1887)

6/2/1840-1/11/1928


I sat in the Muses' Hall at the mid of the day,
And it seemed to grow still, and the people to pass away,
And the chiselled shapes to combine in a haze of sun,
Till beside a Carrara column there gleamed forth One.

She was nor this nor that of those beings divine,
But each and the whole--an essence of all the Nine;
With tentative foot she neared to my halting-place,
A pensive smile on her sweet, small, marvellous face.

"Regarded so long, we render thee sad?" said she.
"Not you," sighed I, "but my own inconstancy!
I worship each and each; in the morning one,
And then, alas! another at sink of sun.

"To-day my soul clasps Form; but where is my troth
Of yesternight with Tune: can one cleave to both?"
- "Be not perturbed," said she. "Though apart in fame,
As I and my sisters are one, those, too, are the same.

- "But my loves go further--to Story, and Dance, and Hymn,
The lover of all in a sun-sweep is fool to whim -
Is swayed like a river-weed as the ripples run!"
- "Nay, wight, thou sway'st not. These are but phases of one;

"And that one is I; and I am projected from thee,
One that out of thy brain and heart thou causest to be -
Extern to thee nothing. Grieve not, nor thyself becall,
Woo where thou wilt; and rejoice thou canst love at all!

To Shakespeare


Author: Thomas Hardy

To Shakespeare

AFTER THREE HUNDRED Y

Bright baffling Soul, least capturable of themes,
Thou, who display'dst a life of common-place,
Leaving no intimate word or personal trace
Of high design outside the artistry
Of thy penned dreams,
Still shalt remain at heart unread eternally.

Through human orbits thy discourse to-day,
Despite thy formal pilgrimage, throbs on
In harmonies that cow Oblivion,
And, like the wind, with all-uncared effect
Maintain a sway
Not fore-desired, in tracks unchosen and unchecked.

And yet, at thy last breath, with mindless note
The borough clocks but samely tongued the hour,
The Avon just as always glassed the tower,
Thy age was published on thy passing-bell
But in due rote
With other dwellers' deaths accorded a like knell.

And at the strokes some townsman (met, maybe,
And thereon queried by some squire's good dame
Driving in shopward) may have given thy name,
With, "Yes, a worthy man and well-to-do;
Though, as for me,
I knew him but by just a neighbour's nod, 'tis true.

"I' faith, few knew him much here, save by word,
He having elsewhere led his busier life;
Though to be sure he left with us his wife."
--"Ah, one of the tradesmen's sons, I now recall . . .
Witty, I've heard . . .
We did not know him . . . Well, good-day. Death comes to all."

So, like a strange bright bird we sometimes find
To mingle with the barn-door brood awhile,
Then vanish from their homely domicile -
Into man's poesy, we wot not whence,
Flew thy strange mind,
Lodged there a radiant guest, and sped for ever thence.

1916.

*****

cow2 (kou) pronunciation
tr.v., cowed, cow·ing, cows.

To frighten with threats or a show of force. See synonyms at intimidate.

[Probably of Scandinavian origin.]

2009年1月7日 星期三

Mortal coil

"shuffle[d] off this mortal coil", Left the Scene

Being Green After You’ve Left the Scene

Just because you’ve shuffled of your mortal coil doesn’t mean you can’t continue to give the environment a helping hand.

In the UK, 70 percent of all funerals are cremations, a higher percentage than anywhere else in the world. This has turned into a pollution problem because of mercury emissions from dental fillings which melt in the process. Now “green” or “eco-burials” are gaining popularity in the UK. It is estimated that by the end of 2010 around 12 percent of all UK burials will be “green”. Living Planet pays a visit to Manchester, England, to find out what constitutes an “eco-funeral”, and why this industry is catching on.

Report: Lars Bevanger



Mortal coil is a poetic term that means the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned, most famously in the phrase "shuffle[d] off this mortal coil" from Shakespeare's Hamlet. (For more context of the phrase, see To be, or not to be.)


2008年12月12日 星期五

莎士比亚停笔之谜

這blog目前疏於建設 只好偶爾將野史紀錄


莎士比亚停笔之谜
威廉姆•莎士比亚
莎士比亚名震世界文坛几个世纪
被认为是英国文坛巨匠的莎士比亚(William Shakespeare)毕生留下了不少名作,但是,他在40多岁的时候突然停笔“停产”,其中原因,几个世纪以来都是一个谜。

现在,英国剧作者瑞克•托马斯(Rick Thomas)声称,莎士比亚可能是因多年秉烛伏案,视力受损,被迫放弃写作的。

他并且希望在他的新剧作中,使人对莎翁离开伦敦、返回故乡之谜有些理解。

莎士比亚于52岁去世前三年,在1613年离开伦敦返回老家斯特拉福德(Stratford-upon-Avon),标志着他写作生涯的结束。

现在托马斯在为一家剧院明年夏季写一出名为《For All Time》的剧,其内容就是关于莎士比亚为什么要离开伦敦,停止写作的。

由于缺乏历史证据,又无从解释,这一直是专家们为之困惑的事。

视力被损理论

托马斯认为是多年在烛光下写作,毁了莎士比亚的视力的。

他说:“我开始想莎士比亚会怎样度过他的工作日。”

“他会在上午排练,下午演出。所以如果他要写作的话,只能在晚上。这样一年中有六个月他在烛光下工作。如果你这样想,他到48岁还有20-20的视力水平那是不可能的。”

托马斯以剧作家的自身体验得出结论:微弱的烛光损害了莎士比亚的视力。他又说:“我就是看不出莎士比亚还能有清楚的视力。”

离开伦敦后,莎士比亚没有再写任何剧作,三年后,于1616年去世。

家乡人的说法

莎士比亚出生地信托基金主席斯坦利•维尔斯(Stanley Wells)说,这个理论非常有趣,但他认为,更可能的是1613年上演莎剧的环球剧院(The Globe Theatre)被大火焚毁,莎士比亚精神受到重创,因而离开伦敦。

他也质疑莎士比亚回乡前一直住在伦敦的理论。他说,莎翁其实常回斯特拉福德:“他并非离开伦敦。这是把事情简单化。他在伦敦从来没有房子,只是寄宿,可他在斯特拉福德有当地第二大的房子。”

他还说,莎士比亚的视力在生命的尽头,一定也还不错,让他有能力签他那复杂精巧的签名。

幸存的莎士比亚六个签名中,有五个是他死前最后一年签署的,其中一个更被认为签于他死前两个月。

但托马斯说,他的剧没打算揭示历史,只是提出莎士比亚想离开伦敦的许多理由。

他说,他最终把失明作为主要原因,但“事实是我们不知道,而且也许永远不会知道。”

2008年11月3日 星期一

"莎翁"

hc
"莎翁"是語病 他似乎53歲就過世

在莎士比亞世界 "新譯"沒意義

pr
"大富「翁」
「兒童」是未來的主人「翁」
東「翁」
俱不老,尊稱也"

2008年11月2日 星期日

pomegranate

pomegranate 是10月18日值得一記的單字
故事是中餐的沙拉美不勝收 WWS夫婦難得拿出相機照一張
餐中並盤點其內容 作記 列出材料單 BILL OF MATERIAL
列到第12/13項 有一晶瑩剔透的子他們無法說出 稱為 神秘之子
問主人 知道是"石榴子"
她又說出一英文 因為石榴石garnet 是她的收藏品

我知道它的英文是P開頭 莎士比亞的作品引用過
然後David 用手機查出是pomegranate和 garnet
現在WWS夫婦終於知道所有的食材了

今天 作林修二集

他有一首日文詩 Canna (美人蕉)的英文翻譯為
As I gaze at it so intently
the cannas's face turns red.
Showing its ruby teeth,
the pomegranate smiles.

再查一下

3 Citations of Pomegranate in Shakespeare:3 Citations of Pomegranate in Shakespeare:
"Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate"
All's Well That Ends Well, II.3.259
"Nightly she singts on yond pomegranate tree
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale"

Romeo and Juliet, III.5.4
"Look down into the pomgarnet, Ralph"
I King Henry IV, II.4.38
William Shakespeare (1564-1616),
Maurice Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare,
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1973, p. 992

Pomegranates


The last word on pomegranates belongs, as did the first, to William Shakespeare:

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Romeo and Juliet, III, 5

Law: Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate.
You are a vagabond and no true traveler.

All's Well That Ends Well, II, 3

pomegranate顯示/隱藏例句

KK: []
DJ: []
n. (名詞 noun)
  1. 【植】石榴;石榴樹[C]

pome・gran・ate


━━ a. 【植】ザクロ(の果実・木).