Poem for Saturday and Wheaton Park

I Heard It Said
By Paul Celan

I heard it said, there be
in the water a stone and a circle,
and over the water a word
that places the circle around the stone.

I saw my poplar go down to the water.
I saw how her arm grasped down into the deep.
I saw her roots raised heavenward, begging for night.
I did not hasten to follow her.
I only picked up from the ground that breadcrumb
which has your eye's form and nobility;
I unclasped from your throat the chain of the sayings
and with it bordered the table, where now the crumb lay.

And saw my poplar no more.

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Translation from Point and Circumference.

I had a fairly good Friday with some technical problems that I reserve the right to complain about later, particularly since our minivan tire pressure light is on again and it seems like that happens every time the temperature goes up or down ten degrees, requiring a time-wasting trip to get it checked out. The other technical problem was that Amazon.com didn't bother to ship a power adapter with my new Kindle Fire, but I am so happy with how my early birthday present is working that as long as it arrives Monday as Amazon has promised, I will not gripe publicly. I had played with Gblvr's last week at dinner and decided that that was what I was getting with my birthday/Chanukah money. I still adore my Kindle 3 for reading books -- I specifically did not want a backlight, it's why I didn't want a color Nook last year -- but I love having at tablet that I can anchor to my phone when I need 3G and can use with wireless everywhere else, and so far all the Android programs I've loaded (including those I had to sideload) have worked perfectly!

It was cold but pretty all day. I posted a review of "Move Along Home", not a Deep Space Nine episode I had ever wished to revisit. Adam was working tech at Blast and brought his girlfriend home to do her makeup while he walked the dogs, so I talked to her for a while and tried to find eyeliner for her. Paul made fake chicken merlot and we toyed with the idea of going to the movies, but since Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is only opening in New York and L.A. this weekend we decided to save our money, and I made him watch Mamma Mia because for some horrifying reason I've been in the mood for it all week (Brosnan, Walters, and Skarsgard still can't carry a tune but I forgive everything when all the middle-aged women are dancing through the village singing "Dancing Queen"). Here are Brookside's winter lights in the daytime: