[AccessD] Weekend OT: Russia today by seven years old boy'seyes...

Arthur Fuller fuller.artful at gmail.com
Sat Jul 26 09:34:57 CDT 2008


Oops. A typo. I meant Prufrock. And also I forgot to include the title of
this poem. It's titled "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home".

On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 11:31 AM, Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>wrote:

>  I am wondering how well my favorite poem will translate to Russian. I
> used to think T.S. Eliot the greatest poet of the 20th century (I can recite
> "Profrock" no problem.) But then I came upon this masterpiece:
>
> <poem>
>
> Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
> and some are treasured for their markings -
>
> they cause the eyes to melt
> or the body to shriek without pain.
>
> I have never seen one fly, but
> sometimes they perch on the hand.
>
> Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
> and rests its soft machine on ground:
>
> then the world is dim and bookish
> like engravings under tissue paper.
>
> Rain is when the earth is television.
> It has the property of making colours darker.
>
> Model T is a room with the lock inside -
> a key is turned to free the world
>
> for movement, so quick there is a film
> to watch for anything missed.
>
> But time is tied to the wrist
> or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.
>
> In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
> that snores when you pick it up.
>
> If the ghost cries, they carry it
> to their lips and soothe it to sleep
>
> with sounds. And yet they wake it up
> deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
>
> Only the young are allowed to suffer
> openly. Adults go to a punishment room
>
> with water but nothing to eat.
> They lock the door and suffer the noises
>
> alone. No one is exempt
> and everyone's pain has a different smell.
>
> At night when all the colours die,
> they hide in pairs
>
> and read about themselves -
> in colour, with their eyelids shut.
>
> 	-- Craig Raine <http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/index_poet_R.html#Raine>
>
> </poem>
>
> It may take you several minutes to work it out, but wow. I wish that I had
> written that.
>
> Arthur
>
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 11:09 AM, Shamil Salakhetdinov <
> shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru> wrote:
>
>> Thank you, Tina,
>>
>> Yes, his name is Damir.
>>
>> <<<
>> For all the differences we can find among peoples, I find myself
>> awestruck again and again by our much greater similarities.
>> >>>
>> Yes, the same feeling here - in fact this was my intention (:)) to
>> highlight
>> how similar we're in our general perception of this world by publishing
>> these simple movies on everyday life here - I'm a kind of "sick & tired"
>> to
>> watch and hear mainly bad and "yellow/hot" news from mass-media both local
>> and world-wide - Internet access is not limited here, CNN, BBC etc. as
>> well
>> as all the main western and eastern magazines and newspapers are available
>> here for the one who is interested to see this world from different
>> angles...
>>
>> ...in the same time I think/see there are some small but very significant
>> differences in our attitude to this world and our lives: main AccessD
>> thread
>> isn't right place to talk about them - maybe I come to dba-OT one day to
>> talk about that differences how I see them, and how to help each other to
>> understand the roots of these differences, and to find a way to live in
>> piece and fruitful cooperation on this planet...
>>
>> <<<
>> Please forgive me for waxing too philosophical here.
>> >>>
>> That's OK, Tina - as you can see I'm philosophical and relaxed here too,
>> this weekend, and I'm really enjoying the fresh view of this life, which
>> only children can provide us with...
>>
>> <<<
>> I enjoyed Damir's video, I hope he will do many more
>> to share with all of us.
>> >>>
>> Thank you, Tina.
>>
>> In fact Damir makes a new part release every weekend, when I come to
>> country
>> side where he stays summer time with his grand-mother - there are seven
>> parts now - some of them are published there on YouTube on my account -
>> http://www.youtube.com/user/ShamilMS ...
>>
>> Enjoy! :)
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> --
>> Shamil
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tina Norris
>> Fields
>> Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 3:32 PM
>> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Weekend OT: Russia today by seven years old
>> boy'seyes...
>>
>>  Hi Shamil,
>>
>> That's a beautiful look into the birthday celebration of historical St.
>> Petersburg and into the lovely surrounding countryside.  Your young
>> Damir did a wonderful job.  (Did I get the name right?)
>>
>> What struck me profoundly, once again, is how familiar everything really
>> is - we are half a world apart, we speak a different language, we have
>> different forms of government, etc., but the beauty of the earth looks
>> the same, the face of the mime entertaining people looks the same, and
>> the enjoyment of the young boy and his parents looks the same in St.
>> Petersburg, Russia as it does here in Rapid City, Michigan, in the USA.
>> Furthermore, the emotional settings evoked by the musical selections for
>> the several segments of the video, are familiar and easily understood
>> across these many miles.
>>
>> For all the differences we can find among peoples, I find myself
>> awestruck again and again by our much greater similarities. Please
>> forgive me for waxing too philosophical here.
>>
>> I enjoyed Damir's video, I hope he  will do many more to share with all
>> of us.
>>
>> Tina
>>
>> Shamil Salakhetdinov wrote:
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > Have a look if you're curious how everyday life looks like here both in
>> the
>> > St.Petersburg city downtown on this city "birthday" eve 27th May 2008
>> and
>> in
>> > the country side here this summer:
>> >
>> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m62TnvXqQBc
>> >
>> > Enjoy! :)
>> >
>> > --
>> > Shamil
>> >
>> > P.S. Most of the stuff done by my seven years old son who made all the
>> pics,
>> > video clips, copied them on Dell notebook from photo camera memory card
>> and
>> > combined into movies using English versions of MS Movie Maker running on
>> MS
>> > Windows Vista...
>> >
>> > That's amazing what kids can do these days using nowadays technologies!
>> >
>> >
>> --
>> AccessD mailing list
>> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>
>> --
>> AccessD mailing list
>> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>
>
>



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