Nepenthe

This week's poem is Punk Prayer by the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot , three of whose members have just been  sentenced to two years in a prison colony for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" . Is there any truth in the accusation? It's worth taking a closer look at the lyrics of  Punk Prayer . This, of course, is the song that sparked the trouble when the three women performed it in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour five months ago. The performance was mildly shocking, at least for any believer unused to trendy vicars putting on rock concerts. Loud, rude, up-yours protest is what punk is all about. But the lyrics are not all raw obscenity: they have something significant to say, which the careless translations slopping around the internet tend to obscure. Western commentators have cherry-picked simple-mindedly to find quotations. In offering my version of Punk Prayer as Poem of the Week, I'm expressing solidarity with the ...

Fernweh [1] is what the Germans call that longing for faraway places, the poetic certainty that things are better elsewhere. But there is a superlative degree of geographic desire, a Fernweh even more sublime: the ache for fictional faraway places. Of such nonexistent locations, the mythical continent of Magellanica surely is the crowning glory. By rights of pedigree and size, it should be the most prominent of of phantom lands. Yet  Magellanica is as absent from the imagination as it is from contemporary maps - those prosaic projections of mere topographic fact.  Magellanica has had many names and shapes, and regularly occupied large swathes of the southern hemisphere on world maps from the 15th to the 18th century. The most fantastic climates, cities and costumes were attributed to her. But most cartographers shied away from focusing on this hypothetical, as yet to be discovered continent. Conventionally, it is shown as an upside-down curtain, arbitrarily ...

“He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine.” - Wuthering Heights , Emily Bronte

- Jane Eyre (The Word Made Flesh)

(1920 - 2012) “ We can’t go on without him.” “What’ll we do? Carry him?” Simmons spat. “He’s no good to us or himself. He’ll just stand here and drown.” “What?” “You ought to know that by now. Don’t you know the story? He’ll just stand there with his head up and let the rain come into his nostrils and mouth. He’ll breathe the water.” “No.” “That’s how they found General Mendt that time. Sitting on a rock with his head back, breathing the rain. His lungs were full of water. ” — The Long Rain

Via: Medical Insurance

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Bandwiches: AC/DC:  Beer-battered kangaroo sausage, sliced hard-boiled egg, low-calorie port cheese, Dutch crunch. Black Sabbath:  Ham, stilton,  LSD  mustard, milled wheat bread. Thin Lizzy:  Chopped sausage, mincemeat, Jameson-shiitake reduction, soda bread. The Beatles:  Beef, ham, chicken, lamb, fondue sauce, dinner roll. Wings:  Sliced vegan haggis, wilted arugula, aged soy cheddar, rice bread. Led Zeppelin:  Arum sandwich with hummus, lettuce, 22 thin-sliced deli meats; side of Colman’s mustard. Bob Dylan:  Scrapple, melted pepper jack, hemp-seed garlic bread. The Pogues:  Gin-fed lamb, whiskey-marinated turkey, beer-braised pork shoulder, mustard, soda bread. Van Halen:  Grilled 17-cheese sandwich on white bread; side of nacho cheese soup. Ted Nugent:  Cubed Grizzly bear, white buffalo brisket, unicorn haunch, Jim Beam barbecue sauce, white bread. The Jimi Hendrix Experience:  Bacon-double ...

AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERYONE WHO, WHEN MY FIANCÉ LEFT ME, TOLD ME IT WAS “HIS LOSS.” BY  MEGAN VAN LOH - - - - Dear Everyone, The person I love most in the entire world has left me. Gone. Vanished. And the real kicker here folks—he left by choice. You all know this and yet you still say it’s “his loss.” As if that is supposed to make me feel better, console me; make me the “bigger person.” It does none of the above because the truth of the matter is: I  have  experienced a loss. Losses and wins involve points, am I correct? Let’s think about the situation and see where the points should be awarded. Are we all in agreement that the loss goes to the person with the least amount of points? Good. Let’s begin: Since it was his choice to leave me, and I had no say in the matter—actually I wasn’t even warned it was coming (or going, as was the case), or given the opportunity to work on things or speak with a third party—I’d say that’s 1 point him, 0 points me....

and this is just Lisbon, there's Porto too, and the world...

Translation is the first step towards the rapprochement of peoples, and is also a decentralizing experience, teaching diversity and dialogue. Translation is one of the driving principles of our creative diversity, which enriches each language through contact with all the others. Irina Bokova, Director General Message for World Book and Copyright Day 2012 La traduction est le premier pas vers le rapprochement des peuples, elle est aussi une expérience du décentrement qui est une école de la diversité et du dialogue. La traduction est l’un des principes moteurs de notre diversité créatrice, qui enrichit chaque langue du contact de toutes les autres. Irina Bokova, Directrice Générale  Message pour la Journée mondiale du livre et du droit d'auteur 2012 A tradução é o primeiro passo para a aproximação entre os povos e também uma experiência descentralizadora que ensina a diversidade e o diálogo. A tradução é um dos princípios motrizes da nossa diversidade criado...