Hugh and other Australians may be interested to hear that the next
issue of the _South Atlantic Quarterly_ (due out this fall) is a
special issue entitled "After the Garden?" and guest-edited by Uni
Melbourne political scientist Michael Crozier--a photograph of whom
taken by myself at the "Apostles" landform site last spring will
grace the back cover (with a gorgeous aerial photo of several
southwest Gippsland farms on the front). We've just verified the
exact number of those "Apostles" with the Victorian Tourist Commission,
in fact, and Hugh might like to do the same before his translation is
reprinted with its reference to "Seven Apostles": the, er, gospel
on this disputed number (which we'd queried after being told 12, 8,
& 7 by various OZzies) is that there were originally 12 (hence the
"apostles"), but 4 of them having crumbled into the surf in the
meantime, there are now only 8.
For listees who have no idea what Hugh's "Seven Apostles" meant or
what I'm blathering on about here: this is a stunning natural land
formation on the east coast of the Australian continent (at Port
Campbell, nearly the more enchantingly named Port Fairy), whereby
12 (as was) big, tall rocks sheared off from the coastline itself
and were left standing alone in a line in the surf (some # of meters
from shore that Hugh will have to provide here). What it looked like
to me was something on the order of Stonehenge in the Surf (if ever
there was).
Candice
Hugh Tollhurst wrote:
>from "Unfaithful Translations"
>
>VII
>
>You ask how many of your worldly kisses
>are enough for me, Lesbia, enough and more?
>One kiss for every grain of sand swept
>down the coast from Seven Apostles,
>past Apollo Bay, to Point Danger;
>a number glowing like southern skies
>in points to star your eyes below midnight,
>the dashboard legend of illicit miles:
>to find your lips as many times
>might quiet Tolhurst's madness:
>no barman could squeeze the measure,
>no satellite eavesdrop the amount.
>
>
>
>Hugh Tolhurst
>
>
>reprinted with permission from
>Filth and Other Poems (Black Pepper 1997)
>403 St Georges Road North Fitzroy
>Victoria 3068 Australia
>
>soon to be reprinted (January 2001)
>in Catullus in English
>ed Julia Haig Gaisser
>(Harmondsworth UK: Penguin Classics, 2001)
>
>
>
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|