Magellanic Penguin
By Pablo Neruda
Translated by Alfred Yankauer
Neither clown nor child nor black
nor white but verticle
and a questioning innocence
dressed in night and snow:
The mother smiles at the sailor,
the fisherman at the astronaunt,
but the child child does not smile
when he looks at the bird child,
and from the disorderly ocean
the immaculate passenger
emerges in snowy mourning.
I was without doubt the child bird
there in the cold archipelagoes
when it looked at me with its eyes,
with its ancient ocean eyes:
it had neither arms nor wings
but hard little oars
on its sides:
it was as old as the salt;
the age of moving water,
and it looked at me from its age:
since then I know I do not exist;
I am a worm in the sand.
the reasons for my respect
remained in the sand:
the religious bird
did not need to fly,
did not need to sing,
and through its form was visible
its wild soul bled salt:
as if a vein from the bitter sea
had been broken.
Penguin, static traveler,
deliberate priest of the cold,
I salute your vertical salt
and envy your plumed pride.
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I woke up feeling horribly sick -- my punishment for eating out twice on Thursday, probably -- so after the kids went to school I went back to bed and slept till nearly 10:30. Therefore I have very little of note to report. Wrote two articles on Trek XI rumors (officially to be called Star Trek, with no subtitles or numerals) and reviewed "The Last Outpost", picked up older son from early bus and drove him to a friend's house, cleaned out refrigerator after looking for yogurt and finding one all the way at the back with a December expiration date. That kind of excitement.
1. What timezone are you in? Eastern Standard.
2. Do like Daylight Savings Time, or should it be gotten rid of? Love it. The more hours of daylight, the better, and since I'm not a morning person, the later is goes, the better.
3. Do you wear a wristwatch? On occasion. I used to wear one constantly, but since I've had my latest phone with the clock on the main screen, not as often.
4. What time is it right now (local time)? 8:26 as I'm typing this, though it won't get posted till later.
5. Analog or digital? If it's a decorative clock, particularly a historic one, analog; if it's the alarm clock that's supposed to get me up in the morning, digital.
1. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose? Galactica 1980 probably deserves to be here, but I forgive its existence for the episode about the fate of Starbuck.
2. Are you more like your mother or your father? I'd like to think my mother but in a lot of ways I'm like my father.
3. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do? Travel around the world. Circumnambulate Mount Kailas, visit Jerusalem, see the Angkor temples, go to Newgrange, stand in the Alhambra, tour Chichen Itza...I have a long list.
4. Can you think of a reason not to answer this question? I can think of six and a half reasons.
5. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone? Told a lie.
My good friend in London told me that she has procured tickets for us all to go see Spamalot together when we are there and suggested that we eat in Chinatown beforehand since it's right nearby. Does anyone have any suggestions for fairly quick inexpensive good restaurants there, particularly buffets if the London version of Chinese food is anything like the New York version? We've had Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern and Moroccan food in the UK but I don't think we've had Chinese. We also have to track down someplace near High Littleton to find Passover staples...perhaps we'll get those before leaving London, since I know they had them in the Tesco in Catford.
A burrowing owl in the bird house.
Von der Decken's hornbill in the small mammal house.
Officially there are not mallards at the National Zoo, only at the Conservation and Research Center. These visitors from Rock Creek Park apparently did not get that memo, and have moved into the wetlands exhibit in the roots of this bald cypress.
Had a quiet evening watching The Prisoner's "The Chimes of Big Ben" (which is one of the best episodes) and Torchwood's "Cyberwoman" (which I loved, which surprised me given some of the warnings I'd been given about it -- the acting is exceptional, it has interesting parallels to various other cybernetic female stories, and it's very revealing about all the main characters).
Oh, Maryland, my Maryland...what the hell happened? And how sad about Boston's Brad Delp. Don't look back.
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