Friday, December 31, 2010

Rapunzel

Ruslana Korshunova / © Elina Kechicheva

Time for tales
Wenn die Zauberin hinein wollte, so stellte sie sich unten hin und rief:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Laß mir dein Haar herunter!"
Rapunzel hatte lange, prächtige Haare, fein wie gesponnen Gold. Wenn sie nun die Stimme der Zauberin vernahm, so band sie ihre Zöpfe los, wickelte sie oben um einen Fensterhaken, und dann fielen die Haare zwanzig Ellen tief herunter, und die Zauberin stieg daran hinauf.

[When the witch wanted to come in, she stood down below and called out:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair for me."
Rapunzel had beautiful long hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch's voice, she undid her braids and fastened them to the window latch. They fell to the ground twenty ells down, and the witch climbed up on them.]

Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm [Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 1812-1857]

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

το νεράκι και το χώμα σου

Με τα σύνεργα θα έρθω της ανασκαφής
το κορμάκι μου να σκάψω για να φυτευτείς
και θ' αδειάσω σαν ποτήρι μες το στόμα σου
εγώ είμαι το νεράκι και το χώμα σου
Στίχοι: Γιάννης Τσατσόπουλος, Μουσική: Σωκράτης Μάλαμας [Μαύρο φως, 1992]

Monday, December 27, 2010

Flamma

Flames / © I.A. Daglis
flamma flamma
ex sole et stellis surrepta
audacium lux
amoris ardor
ut animam liberes
ut tenebras vincas
te consecramus

[flame flame
stolen from sun and stars
light of the reckless
ardor of love
to free the soul
to vanquish darkness
we consecrate you]

Nicholas Lens [Flamma Flamma, in The Accacha Chronicles, 1994]


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Άστρα

Σφαιρικό σμήνος Ωμέγα Κενταύρου / European Southern Observatory
Τόσα άστρα
    κι εγώ να λιμοκτονώ.
Τάσος Λειβαδίτης [Εγχειρίδιο ευθανασίας, 1979]
Με ευχαριστίες στη Στέλλα

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Power elite: “more equal” than the others

Chateau Beynac - power of the old days / © Luc Viatour

Considerations of conflict resolution, decision making, economics, and space converge in requiring large societies to be centralized. But centralization of power inevitably opens the door – for those who hold the power, are privy to information, make the decisions, and redistribute the goods – to exploit the resulting opportunities to reward themselves and their relatives… As early societies developed, those acquiring centralized power gradually established themselves as an elite, perhaps originating as one of the several formerly equal-ranked village clans that became “more equal” than the others.

Jared Diamond [Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, 1997]

Hellenic Parliament, Athens - contemporary power / © Gerard McGovern

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

γαϊδουράγκαθα

γαϊδουράγκαθα στο Βέρμιο, αύγουστος 2006 / © I.A. Daglis 

…ο Λίο Άουφμαν ήταν άνθρωπος που ζούσε χωρίς άγχος, απολαμβάνοντας πώς χτυπούσαν το ένα με τ’ άλλο τα γαϊδουράγκαθα στο καυτό χορτάρι όταν φυσούσε λίβας …

Ρέι Μπράντμπερυ [Κρασί από πικραλίδα, 1957]

Sunday, December 19, 2010

the howling chaos of the heart

The hidden fires of the Flame Nebula / © European Southern Observatory
My love is too much
it embarrasses you
blood, poems, babies,
red needs that telephone
from foreign countries,
black needs that spatter
the pages
of your white papery heart.

You would rather have a girl
with simpler needs:
lunch, sex, undemanding
loving,
dinner, wine, bed,
the occasional blow-job
and needs that are never
red as gaping wounds
but cool and blue
as television screens
in tract houses.

Oh my love,
those simple girls
with simple needs
read my books too.

They tell me they feel
the same as I do.

They tell me I transcribe
the language of their hearts.
They tell me I translate
their mute, unspoken pain
into the white light
of language.

Oh love,
no love
is ever wholly undemanding.
It can pretend coolness
until the pain comes,
until the first baby comes,
howling her own infant need
into a universe
that never summoned her.

The love you seek
cannot be found
except in the white pages
of recipe books.

It is cooking you seek,
not love,
cooking with sex coming after,
cool sex
that speaks to the penis alone,
and not the howling chaos
of the heart.

Erica Jong [My Love is Too Much from Ordinary Miracles, 1983]

Friday, December 17, 2010

Οι γέροι

Old Man, Children, Birds. Paris 1982 / © I.A. Daglis
Οι Γέροι
Μοιάζουν τόσο πολύ με τα παιδιά
που σου ‘ρχεται να τους τραγουδήσεις
ύστερα θυμάσαι πως  δεν έχουν όνειρα
μήτε το θράσος της υγείας
κι απομένεις βουβός
θέλοντας να προσκυνήσεις τ’ αξούριστα πρόσωπα
όπως τον ξεχασμένο τάφο των γονέων σου
που σου τον θύμισε τ’ όνειρο χθες βράδυ …

Στυλιανός Χαρκιανάκης [Η οικειότητα των αινιγμάτων, 1983]

Thursday, December 16, 2010

16 Dec 1928: Birthday of Philip K. Dick


"Everything is true", he said. "Everything anybody has ever thought".
Philip K. Dick 
[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1968; aka Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, 1982]
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner opening (1982)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

People on Mars, beggars in the streets

Beggar in Rome / I.A. Daglis
Beggars slumped in the doorways. There were people on Mars and there were beggars in the streets of the nation’s capital, and all the lawyers walked by them every day, their freedom-and-justice talk no more than a cover for greed. “We’re gonna do it differently on Mars”, Frank said...
Kim Stanley Robinson [Red Mars, 1993]

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Χιόνι

Snow tree / © Alex Daglis 
Ξανάρθε λοιπόν
το χιόνι που βγήκαμε
να δούμε μαζί.
Ματσούο Μπασό [1644–1694, Ιάπωνας ποιητής]

Saturday, December 11, 2010

the rapturous enthusiasm of a child

Alex and a ladybug, 1992 / © I.A. Daglis  

Herodotus travels in order to satisfy a child’s question: Where do the ships on the horizon come from? And is what we see with our own eyes not the edge of the world? No. So there are still other worlds? What kind? When the child grows up, he will want to get to know them. But it would be better if he didn’t grow up completely, if he stayed always in some small measure a child. Only children pose important questions and truly want to discover things. Herodotus learns about his world with the rapturous enthusiasm of a child.

Ryszard Kapuściński [Travels with Herodotus, 2004]

Friday, December 10, 2010

Light

Fiat Lux / © I.A. Daglis
 
Hold me in the dark;
you will see light.

Erica Jong [How to save your own life, 1977]

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Τύπος και ουσία

Πινακίδα απαγόρευσης σε πλατεία χωριού της Ευρυτανίας

το σάββατον δια τον άνθρωπον εγένετο, ουχ ο άνθρωπος δια το σάββατον.
Μάρκ. 2, 27

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Starving. Liberally.

Orphan in Drapetsona, Athens, during the German occupation,Winter 1942.
© Voula Papaioannou

Earth is a perfectly liberal world. But half of it is starving, and always has been, and always will be. Very liberally.

Arkady in Red Mars of Kim Stanley Robinson [1993]