Poem for Saturday

The Sun
By Edith Södergran
Translated By David McDuff

I stand as on clouds in a bliss without likeness.
The edges of the clouds burn red. It is the sun.
The sun has kissed me. Like it kisses nothing upon earth.
Am I to live eternally as a witness of the moment?
Alas, no, I am to climb up the vertical rays nearer her.
One day
I shall spin myself into the sun like a fly into amber,
it will be no jewel for those who come after me,
but I have been in the glowing oven of bliss.
Woe, you crown that gleams on my forehead,
what will they know when they see you?

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This poem seemed to me to follow visually from the end of the poem I posted yesterday, though I found this one first and it's entirely different in topic, theme and tone. I believe introduced me to the poet.

First the major news: we have a rental mini-van! It's a Ford, not nearly as wonderful as our Toyota or even our six-year-old Plymouth Voyager, but so long as it works for the next few weeks while the Sienna is out of commission I will be happy. The inspector is coming to look tomorrow, the adjustor will call Monday and the repair places are already saying they can't even get it in till the week after. It may be a long December in a strange vehicle. Not that I am complaining, as a strange vehicle is so much better than no vehicle at all!

Other than going to pick up the van, I had little excitement today: wrote three articles in the afternoon, consoled my younger son who had fallen on the way out of school and gashed his lip, helped my older son with a Hebrew school project that required taking photos of Jewish decorations and tchotchkes. We had dinner with my parents, Italian food, and it seems that my older son and I are going with my father to the Redskins game on Sunday -- club level seats. This ought to be fun!

Enterprise review: "Kir'Shara". The advance word on this episode had been wonderful, and it was a lot of fun to watch and tied up most of the Vulcan arc pretty well, but in terms of the overall Star Trek ethos, I had a number of fairly large quibbles. Ah well, we'll see if they get to them before the season ends!

And I'm still compulsively drabbling, because I start responding to comments and get entirely new ideas. : "Familial", a serious drabble about Snape and the Dursleys, and : "Just a Harmless Little Bunny", a fluffy drabble about Snape and Hagrid. Yes really.


My birthday present arrived early: Barbie and Ken as Galadriel and Legolas. This may be the first time in history where I actually thought Ken looked more butch than the character he was modeled upon. *veg*


Doesn't a shattered headlight look pretty in the afternoon sun? :p


Look, a friend sent me bootleg November Project CDs! This makes me so happy there are no words! When we see the re-formed October Project, we are getting many of these performers with one of the original OP singers, Marina, rather than the NP singer, Maryann. Neither of them is Mary Fahl, but they both have gorgeous voices in their own right and Emil and Julie have written several wonderful new songs, some of which can only be heard at present on these live recordings.


This is what we indulged in while sulking about having no transportation -- my wonderful husband picked them up during our younger son's violin lesson yesterday.


And another early birthday present, which I got ridiculously cheaply from Amazon by combining discounts, gift certificates and coupons: my Complete Aubrey/Maturin! Have not started 21 yet; am too afraid of finishing it.


sitting on my floor playing with my cats and waiting for me to get off my ass so we can go to lunch. Rosie always cheats on with her, and here is yet more proof of it.