EP e' morto! Viva EP! (Say, isn't that what they used to call
Evans-Pritchard? Any relation?)
You are cheering me up, too, roedeer sole, when I am so sad over
Doug Oliver's death. And how he would have loved your "infinite
chances of Being"! He became very interested in bees when he wrote
his Cave poem, you know, and we used to joke about the Great Chain
of Beeing. I've just been musing on a lovely story he told me he
read in a Renaissance book called _The Feminine Monarchie_ (which
had reversed a long poetic tradition, going back to Vergil at
least, of male queen bees): a beekeeper once put a Communion wafer
at the entrance to his hive in hopes of increasing honey production.
When he later examined the hive, he discovered--Doug said--that the
bees had made a wax cathedral "and were flying around it sweetly
humming."
What did Voltaire whisper in my "infant ear"? He said (in French,
of course--this is just a rough, preschool-girl translation):
"Littlebig-ette, no matter how long a baguette life begets you,
never forget that half a loaf is NOT better than none."
>From the Vicarage, Durham
___________________________________________________________
>Dear Candida,
>
>today, 12.40 a.m, I am dead in my hotel room.
>Thank you very much for you many jokes that cheered me up,
>while getting stiffer.
>My lower limbs already turned blue, all my beauty gone,
>I contemplate the infinite chances of Being.
>The TV is still on, someone is talking:
>the Italian handsome Prime Minister D'Alema, has resigned.
>Fair enough!
>Il Re e' morto! Viva il Re!
>
>And I, what do I say, in my corrupted flash, between axe and stoke ,
>waiting with wide-opened eyes?
>I say : "Dear Candice, how about Voltaire?
>What did he whisper in your infant ear?
>Apologies, dear Soul, for all the troubles that caused you to learn your
>language."
>
>Dearly yours, EP
___________________________________________________________________
>> Apologies in turn, sandal-wing, for my sharpish tone! Don't know
>> what it is about Good Friday that always puts me in such a Bad
>> Moody, but all this dirty talk on Easter Sunday is making me feel
>> cheerful as a resurrection (wishin' you a Burkin' Hare day, too).
>>
>> To answer your questions below--by all means, call me "Candida,"
>> if you like, for it is well known that I come from the Land of
>> Hams (pace Circe), and your Terry Southern Italian dialect is
>> udderly irresistible.
>>
>> A "come-on" is the "ordinary language" term for what philosophers
>> of the Wittgensteinian ilk call a proposition. As for the lewdic
>> "Mister Viv" and your queries re Penelope (Nope), Circe (C above,
>> er, minnie-haha), Nausica (Miss Prince, don't make me sick!)--now
>> ulyssen to me, Charmeneia, I am of course the very one you left
>> out of your reckoning: APOCALYPSO. [Say, Viv, think Reg could
>> interest Her Mes Jesty in a little sportswear avant elle pass
>> ananty?]
>>
>> As beautiful as U2? Heaven forfend! You will be envy-green to hear
>> that I'm as ugly as Sappho--an embarrassment of grasses (if not so
>> long on lasses)--bleu-frommage caked and round-faced as the moon on
>> cortisone--
>>
>> Porcinea
>>
>> What-ho the Boatman? Cometh yet?
_______________________________________________________________________
>> >And how about your name: do you mind if I call you Candida, with all the
>> >sweet implications that the name implies?
>> >"Candida e pura come un fiore.
>> >Candidamente casta come il sole.
>> >Gnetile tu mi appari all'imbrunire."
>> >(By the way... for cultural barriers I have a problem with phrasal verbs
>in
>> >English; What do you mean when you say : ("besides your come-ons to Viv,
>I
>> >mean.) , I did not catch your allusions to Mister Viv who was so charming
>as
>> >to exchange ludic poetic language games about Ulysses? Could you explain
>> >better the matter? Are you his Penelope? His Circe? His Nausica?
>> >
>> >I am sorry to have been unable to understand the tone of your letter
>> >completely.
>> >Sorry also to have offended your Saffo (whose poetry, as I have pointed
>out
>> >in my letter, I deeply, immensely admire).
>> >A last question, dear Candice: are you beautiful as me too?
>> >Sorry for my misprints: I am long sighted and short of glasses.
>> >EP
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