tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post6959238926323703041..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: Ancestral, on the eve of my sixty-firstGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-64473544960034005472010-09-01T07:07:28.152+01:002010-09-01T07:07:28.152+01:00Why do goats, coughing or othwerwise get such a ba...Why do goats, coughing or othwerwise get such a bad press? Is it because of their feet?<br />I like goats for their head-butting smelly independence of spirit. I'm a goat myself come to that.<br />I also like pigs, even though they had the madness of man sent into them. In Chinese astrology I'm a pig. <br />I'm the two worst things!<br />I don't like ants, those follow-my-leader things held up in holy text or other as a wonderful role model for mankind and I detest those the coo-coo-cooo flying rats dive bombing me from church windows. <br />Prawns, Igor? I luv them in curry and prawn flavoured poppadums.<br />Thanks for bringing up this discussion agaian. I'd completely forgotten about it and I enjoyed reading once more through all the post. I expect that George will too.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-81503252412051204692010-08-31T12:36:03.433+01:002010-08-31T12:36:03.433+01:00The "goat" in "the field overhead&q...The "goat" in "the field overhead" in Eliot's poem is no goat, it's the constellation Capricorn (the "field overhead" is the night sky, which is why it coughs at night, not by day); and the Jew isn't a Jew, and Gerontion isn't a man. (Gerontion is the human soul, waiting to be released from the body, which is the rented room he currently inhabits; the Jew who is the owner is the mundane preoccupation with the material world which the body enforces, Eliot's equivalent of Yeats's line about the "crone who keeps the till" or whatever it was).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15591062925663360015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-37091456743233897462009-12-20T18:51:57.539+00:002009-12-20T18:51:57.539+00:00George, Andrew and I are interested in your use of...George, Andrew and I are interested in your use of the Polish word 'tesknota' and wonder whether it occurs in Bruno Schulz, whose fiction is suffused by homesickness and the title of whose only German story refersto homecoming also. We would be fascinated to learn what connotations 'tesknota' sends out and its etymology. Andrew, who was accused of being Polish by a border guard with a rifle on the train in Bulgaria, feels a strong nostalgia for Poland, a country to which he has never been.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-60542617424016281472009-11-30T14:11:09.930+00:002009-11-30T14:11:09.930+00:00BA,
I've posted Return of Merlin on my 'B...BA, <br />I've posted Return of Merlin on my 'Bard on the Run' blog just for you. <br /><br />Feel free to wander over.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-18899405337219060562009-11-30T13:00:36.054+00:002009-11-30T13:00:36.054+00:00Yes, BA - it was a Norfolk taxi driver who told me...Yes, BA - it was a Norfolk taxi driver who told me that people in SW England spoke Norfolk only much slower.<br /><br />He was speaking slowly at the time.<br /><br>George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-74436129394785117232009-11-30T12:53:01.567+00:002009-11-30T12:53:01.567+00:00Jonathan meades is a middle aged RADA trained rent...Jonathan meades is a middle aged RADA trained rent-a-face all rounder in the cultural commentating biz. He is best known for waxing orgasmically on architecture, food, and current affairs, whilst wearing Alan Delon shades to get across how cool he really is and not just a bloke who talks 'posh'. (Bastard).<br /><br />The mimic John Sessions, playing Keef Richards as a corner shop-keeper in that tv comedy show from a few years back, Stella Street - a brave luvvie doing his bit for contemporary English Culture all go go and wow, wow!<br /><br />The other fella prancing with the umbrella, is unknown to me, and is thin. No, this chap looks a bit like the fat archeologist with with straggly hari, who is oppo number 2 or three to Tony Robinson on Time Team.<br /><br />The one always on about the geo-fizz, with a SW English accent, that I read someone point out (was it you George?), actually sounds like Norfolk. <br /><br />I spent five minutes trying to pull up the show, but can't find it. He looks a bit like the Time Team fattie, but more bouncey and rotund, retracing the Celts of Britain in the prog and loving to point out stuff that dilineates different than the usual one dimensional luvvie-spec fawned into our drawing rooms and parlours by the less radical television Historians happy with the staus quo poetic that delivers them that 'posh' accent 'I' feel inferior to when performing one's role as the voice of the bog-class cultural Commoner commentating on very very unimportant realities, such as what I watch on telly, here, in the throne room of ones plasterboard castle.<br /><br />Hip hip.Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-33816393532844906562009-11-30T12:13:30.666+00:002009-11-30T12:13:30.666+00:00"Which fat English bloke?"
Certainly no..."Which fat English bloke?"<br /><br />Certainly not the athletic long-striding indomitable Nick Crane with his trademark umbrella sticking out of his rucksack who went down those very mines with a girl with silver finger nails. <br /><br />I've been down those mines too, although the visitor is only allowed in the first two levels, and I can tell you it's a pretty tight squeeze - perhaps BA's "fat English bloke" is still down there. Although I didn't see him. <br /><br />What I often like to remember is that a 4,000 year old cat, surrounded by a small circle of blackberry seeds, was found on a rock shelf down there. I like to imagine the cat's owners, perhaps children and their parents, carefully laying the animal to rest.<br />Who is Jonathan Meade?<br />By the way, in the Bronze Age the Great Orme (Dragon) used to be an island. It may soon become so again. Llandudno may become the new Venice.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-6752711198028714432009-11-30T11:46:08.742+00:002009-11-30T11:46:08.742+00:00Which fat English bloke? Jonathan Meade?Which fat English bloke? Jonathan Meade?George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-70184849682876593122009-11-30T11:27:04.117+00:002009-11-30T11:27:04.117+00:00oops, fat British bloke who was a bit leery on the...oops, fat British bloke who was a bit leery on the English, even though he was posh English himself, obviously with celt people making his container through which the lens of his consciousness experiences its brief flash as 'here'Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-30134085633857694452009-11-30T11:24:04.807+00:002009-11-30T11:24:04.807+00:00Goidel, from which Gael, so some claim - comes, is...Goidel, from which Gael, so some claim - comes, is also I think i read, some kind of Brythonic or Pict word, for 'foreigner', or 'raider': because the Irish got that name, I think round the collapse of Rome when Wales was on the receiving end of Irish incursion, the clans that became Welsh but started out as Irish raiders in the 4 and 5 C, in the N%SW penninsulaS.<br /><br />I saw a programme on tv about those mines, with a fat English bloke who seems to hate the British, a radical academic by the looks of him, who is Celtic mad and trying to position his identity full square within that brand of cultural reconstruction that is truly shared by all of us, no matter where we come from, I think. iBriScoWish, a term encompassing all three kingdoms of the union.Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-15743637355951037522009-11-30T08:32:30.354+00:002009-11-30T08:32:30.354+00:00And of course there's the world's biggest ...And of course there's the world's biggest Bronze Age copper mine on the Great Orme (Dragon) near Llandudno with its 8kms of so-far discovered tunnels going down 9 levels where enough malachite for 10,000,000 axes was produced 4,000 years ago...are you SURE you want to get mixed-up in all this Welshness BA. After all, 'Welsh' is only English for foreigner. The foreigner in his own land then?Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-1883693640090830672009-11-30T07:49:52.761+00:002009-11-30T07:49:52.761+00:00There's a book. Jan Morris - "Wales, the ...There's a book. Jan Morris - "Wales, the First Place God Made". <br />Croeso! and welcome to Wales, BA<br />Did I ever tell you about the Lost Atlantis of Cardigan Bay? The say can hear the bells ringing when the wind is in the right quarter. Draw your line from the end of the Llyn Peninsula to the tip of Pembroke - all that was also Wales once, but then it sunk beneath the sea. The wrath of the Almighty or what?Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-18563337071314032042009-11-30T04:44:17.986+00:002009-11-30T04:44:17.986+00:00I just remembered. I coulda posted it on yer blog ...I just remembered. I coulda posted it on yer blog Gwil. I'm just wondering if it's welsh myth, and if, where. I am moving into that area now, after exhausting meself on Fodhla and Banbha's gobble dee gloop. I'm packing in the Irish myth, it's rubbish. I wanna be Welsh from now.Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-28719810062966284752009-11-30T04:39:55.647+00:002009-11-30T04:39:55.647+00:00'It has been claimed by geologists that Wales ...'It has been claimed by geologists that Wales could be the first place 'God' made..'(?)<br /><br />What's the story - Gwil, behind this statement, please?<br /><br />I suspect it's mired in a depth somewhere, out the way, only the few interested in Welsh myth would be au fait with?<br /><br />~<br /><br />consksh - worverCoirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-90709917709210028132009-11-29T16:35:42.348+00:002009-11-29T16:35:42.348+00:00Thank you BA and PiR and Jee Leong and Anonymous. ...Thank you BA and PiR and Jee Leong and Anonymous. Jee Leong is right - the desk and lamp constitute a camp. And Eleni, that is lovely and, of course, sad too. There is a good Polish word I took from Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation. It is <i>tesknota</i> - it means nostalgia, but it seems better than that, more diffuse and somehow less loaded with sentimentality.<br /><br />Warm wishes to you all.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-55858258075271196132009-11-29T15:41:42.684+00:002009-11-29T15:41:42.684+00:00And you will also choose them for other reasons, b...And you will also choose them for other reasons, but you will not choose them because you hope to gain some advantage by doing so. And that's how it should be. <br /><br />My favourite footballer is Colin Hendry. He was Scotland the Brave personified. I met Colin's dad once. He was a real gentleman.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-82369976270717980702009-11-29T15:16:48.237+00:002009-11-29T15:16:48.237+00:00"You mean the Welsh are NOT the chosen people..."You mean the Welsh are NOT the chosen people?"<br /><br />Not even the Merlinesque Giggs is one of the chosen people. Not even the noble Cadwallader.<br /><br />It has been claimed by geologists that Wales could be the first place God made. But the same Cambrian rock, bordering on pre-Cambrian, i.e. mud) is also found in Canada. So it's all quite meaningless. <br /><br />It's like your birthday party George. You invite your friends. Do you honestly give a **** how much pigment they have in their skin? No. Your guests are 'your chosen'. You will choose them because they have the rare ability of being able to think for themselves.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-74337202344550386542009-11-29T12:06:36.128+00:002009-11-29T12:06:36.128+00:00'Happy Birthday. Get rubbish soon, make 'e...<em>'Happy Birthday. Get rubbish soon, make 'em feel better, the competion.'</em><br /><br />WotneyEndras (from FB, remember, we met in the train to..) <br /><br /><em>ha ha ha</em><br /><br />me arty urgh!! no, no, please, not on my first, second birthday congratulations address to the S who is fifty fifty, straight up 'me' who is just like 'you' GS words.<br /><br />Happy sixty-first S, have a great day: reverse the numerals and be sixteen again, if only for a minute - strap on the skates and get in the rink of Language, don't give up believing in the heart, head and system of prayer and thanks for a life the muse blessed more than most, who Homer calls and Appollo plays through. Bastard.<br /><br />You've still got it, the aul verbal magic. <br /><br />A mystery fan.<br /><br />nucts - wordverificat.Coirí Filíochtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15137576329670368944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-29695786560792356822009-11-29T11:59:08.236+00:002009-11-29T11:59:08.236+00:00Dear Poet,
I understand what you mean by ...Dear Poet,<br /> I understand what you mean by ancestral land. My father being from Instambul, my mother from Asia Minor, both Greeks, fugitives away from their native land by force. I know living in Greece full of the memories of their memories. They are not in life either of them. I also have been and studied in UEA, believing back then that I could make Norfolk my new country for a while but it didn't happen to be. Now back to Greece, I write about my experiences and memories from Norwich having within my heart only the dark, superb world of Laszlo Krasznahorkai in your excellence translation. Be well and remember, nothing in this world perishes without a memory or a trace by somebody. Surranachronist Eleni Seliniadou-GarvinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-84775163584598521882009-11-29T09:46:11.031+00:002009-11-29T09:46:11.031+00:00You mean the Welsh are NOT the chosen people?
So ...You mean the Welsh are NOT the chosen people?<br /><br />So who are those Johnny-come-lately Africans, and what are they doing in our ancestral land?George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-40396044118849054112009-11-29T09:04:08.595+00:002009-11-29T09:04:08.595+00:00Enjoy your 61st and remember that your ancestral l...Enjoy your 61st and remember that your ancestral land like mine is all the World and all that is in it. There is no chosen people. And yet we are all chosen people. <br /><br />If anyone feels deeply that he must have an ancestral land it must be, by definition, somewhere in Africa.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-20979355989792018732009-11-28T23:51:13.722+00:002009-11-28T23:51:13.722+00:00"Desks, and lights, the intimate glow." ..."Desks, and lights, the intimate glow." That too is a kind of campfire, I suppose.Jee Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01979179110231643931noreply@blogger.com