Reminds me of the Greek phrase book in Cohen's Beautiful Losers, mark.
Interesting how one can take these things & turn them into a kind of
prayer....
That it's “ENGLISH GRAMMAR” translated from the Spanish has an especial
import, here....
Doug
On 18-May-05, at 12:26 PM, Mark Weiss wrote:
> Fina García-Marruz (Cuban, born 1923), universally referred to simply
> as Fina, manages some improbable balancing acts. She has declared
> herself simultaneously a convinced Catholic and a convinced Communist,
> and she is universally loved despite her very close connection to the
> regime.
>
> Somewhere I read a very moving essay of hers about first hearing of
> the death of Lorca. I wish I could find it again. She was in the first
> flush of adolescence, and he was her first love.
>
> The selection below represents about 2/3 of the sequence, which she
> published in 1994.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> from “ENGLISH GRAMMAR”
>
> Little Elegy
>
> “Where are you, my son?”
> “Oh, I’m here!”
>
> “Where is your sister?”
> “In the kitchen.”
>
> “Does Emma have two cats?”
> “Only two.”
>
> “We have one mouth
> and just two ears.”
>
> “Is your brother rich?”
> “Oh yes.”
>
> “And are you poor?”
> “Oh yes.”
>
> “The house is old.”
> “The book is gray.”
>
> Where are you, butterfly?
>
>
> Tell Me
>
> “Tell me, can I do anything
> for you?”
>
> “I had a bird.
> Do you know its name?”
>
>
> Use of the Plural
> (Changing plural to singular and singular to
> plural)
>
> Are the rooms large?
> Are the basements damp?
> “My mother has a garden
> with a small horse in it.”
>
> Do the brothers have feathers?
> Do the sisters have oranges?
> “Day has night, sir.
> The month has days and nights.”
>
> The room, the kitchen, the basement.
> The tulip, the umbrella.
> And you, do you have oranges or feathers?
> Do you have brothers or sisters?
>
>
> Herald
>
> The rooster
> is certainly conceited.
>
> But he has his reasons.
>
>
> Adam
>
> “Adam,
> where have you been
> all morning?”
>
> “I have been
> in my father’s garden.
> I have been very happy.”
>
> (I was so young
> when I lost
> my parents!)
>
>
> Past Participles
>
> Forsaken,
> hidden,
> gone.
>
> (Let us walk slowly)
>
> It’s raining hard.
>
>
> Who Has Seen
>
> Who has seen
> the King’s palace?
>
> The baker, the rock
> and the rain.
>
> Who wants to speak
> to my father?
>
> The glass of wine,
> the slippers
> and the coachman.
>
> Be careful on the road.
>
> This Grammar Book
>
> In this grammar book
> there are funny examples, but others
> are very sad, and perhaps
> should not be shown
> to children.
>
> Calmly it says:
> “The watchmaker has sold all his watches.”
> And then (there’s a certain logic to this)
> “Mary is sad.”
> “That man had many friends,
> but he’s lost them all. He is very old.”
> “I want to go to the theater.”
> The birds build their nests.”
> “Who is buying two shirts
> for the poor boy?”
>
> “You always sell me yesterday’s paper!”
>
>
>
> Translated by Mark Weiss
>
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
There are places named for
other places, ones where
a word survives whatever happened
which it once referred to. And there are
names for the places water comes and touches.
But nothing for the whole.
Bill Manhire
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