Well, just so everyone won't think I'm drunk for my last post, I guess I should
answer something more sensible and there aren't many posts or posters out, so
here goes nothing, though Christopher will undoubtedly know more about the
linguistic history of all this, I thought that it was St. Jerome in translating the
previously Greek bible into Latin who came up with "caritas" for "agape" and
then subsequently in English translation "caritas" became connected with,
perhaps somewhat confusedly, with "charity"? though that might make this
another translation thread if I don't watch it. I think the "cold as charity" comes
from the perception that "charity" would be practiced or could be, for any
number of reasons, that were devoid of feeling, so cold, or without the warmth
of agape or charity.
I don't know, perhaps it's the shift in climate, where as cold as it is here in
comparison to where I was for years before, it can still seem balmy here in
comparison to the climate elsewhere like on the winter coast of Maine, but I
think generally when I have thought or felt that others were "cold", I have often
been wrong, wrong in the sense of doing an injustice to their own sense of
feeling. It was a perception within myself, how it felt to me, just as the weather
outside may feel downright bitter to some, or balmy to someone who's just
arrived from Maine, and so true, but not the only truth, and not the truth of the
other person's feelings who may feel quite warm within himself and feel hurt by
such obliviousness in me to that deeply felt reality. On the other hand, there's
little to say beyond regret for catching another short on one's own scales but
then that perhaps takes it to some other element of caritas, more akin to what
Doug was talking about, the taste of tenderness rather than chewing on old
bones, even one's own, and it's late here,
best,
Rebecca
---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 16:05:08 +1100
>From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Names of the god, was Re: Mark, two translations/same Cavafy
poem
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>On 18/1/05 2:02 AM, "Christopher Walker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> One issue is why (or how) you get temperature mapped onto charity, unless
>> it's vice versa. I dislike the conventional explanation < unheated
>> charitable institutions and so forth. On the other hand I'm not entirely
>> unconvinced, and I don't really have anything better.
>
>How old are such concepts as "cold" feelings, &c? I'd think they'd go
>pretty far back, and must be linked to this usage?
>
>A
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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