Saved!

Two of my favourite poems of all time - presented here for posterity. Esenin's 'Kiss' is available in one or two English translations, and while the one I first spied years ago is lost, this one comes pretty close.


'Kiss' by Sergei Esenin

Today I asked the man who changes
Tumans for rubles, one for two,
How I should say to the fair Lala
In Persian softly: "I love you".

Today I asked the money-changer,
In tones as soft as Lake Van`s bliss,
How I should make to the fair Lala
Sweet references to "kiss".

I further asked the money - changer,
Trying my shyness to confine,
How I should say to the fair Lala
The simple phrase that she is "mine".

And he replied to me thus briefly:
Love can't be told in any phrase,
For love one can but sigh in secret,
While loving eyes, like gemstones, blaze.

A kiss has no name you can utter,
On tombs you don't inscribe a kiss.
Like roses red do kisses flutter,
Their petals melting on the lips.

From love no pledge can be demanded,
Both joy and woe came in its trail.
That "you are mine" can whisper only
Hands that have removed the veil.


and now Solveig von Schoultz's 'The Lover', which I have in a precious book, but given here for the hell of it.


'The Lover' by Solveig von Schoultz

My eyes want to kiss your face.
I have no power over my eyes.
They just want to kiss your face.
I flow towards you out of my eyes,
a fine heat trembles round your shoulders,
it slowly dissolves your contours
and I am there with you, your mouth
and everywhere around you --
I have no power over my eyes.

I sit with my hands in my lap,
I shan't touch you and I'll never speak.
But my eyes kiss your face,
I rise out of myself and no-one can stop me,
I flow out and I'm invisible,
I cannot stop this unfathomable flowing,
this dazzle that knows neither end nor beginning --
but when at last you turn your eyes towards me,
your unaware, questioning, stranger's eyes,
I sink myself back into my hands
and take up my place again under my eyelids.


Right...back to playing with myself.

Business opportunities for the aspiring pirate

Look at this!

A Short Note on Courtesy Cars...

'If it don't fit (don't force it)'

While you coax the not-yet-run-in sticky shift
towards the high double-digits
- while musing over the brand of treacle
used to manufuckture the clutch -
you remember the lyrics of Funkadelic,
as you try to get the car into 6th gear,
too prick-thick to realise it doesn't have one.

Where? Watford, finally back in my own car
Listening to: Matthew Herbert Big Band

Will my trip to Brum this weekend be like my trip to York?

He was a good-looking dude with prospects:

He was the gorgeous intellectual:

Loyal:

Possessor of a beautiful smile:

A lovely hairstyle:

So lurrrrrrrrrrrve came to boogie down:

It's just a shame I caught them cottaging:

While you try to scrub the image of them in sweaty mano a mano action from your mind, I give you some glimpses of Kew life:

The Good Soldier Svejk

Jaroslav Hasek's great satire has been adapted and dramatised for R4. Catch episode 1 here now. Episode 2 is living here.

SelfQuestionIntrospection

Perhaps I am spending too much time working, studying, 'ing?

My writing is untidy - the curse of spending too much time emailing, typing, 'ing. If I practise more (or just write) then hopefully it won't be untidy - just unruly.

That's what I need - a transition from 'ing to 'uly.

Who ever met an 'uly they didn't like?

A blast from the past

Profit on 1 in 12.5m Response Rate

This happens, mostly because of this.

Forget me nots

The Humument rings a bell but I am sure I have never seen it before (thanks Nancy).

and...a link that I am prone to forgetting - Odell Brown (and my memory of '88).