Saturday, April 02, 2022

Poem for Saturday and Smithsonian Gardens

One Night
By Juan Ramón Jiménez
Translated by Thomas Walsh

The ancient spiders with a flutter spread
   Their misty marvels through the withered flowers,
The windows, by the moonlight pierced, would shed
   Their trembling garlands pale across the bowers.

The balconies looked over to the South;
   The night was one immortal and serene;
From fields afar the newborn springtime’s mouth
   Wafted a breath of sweetness o’er the scene.

How silent! Grief had hushed its spectral moan
   Among the shadowy roses of the sward;
Love was a fable—shadows overthrown
   Trooped back in myriads from oblivion’s ward.

The garden’s voice was all—empires had died—
   The azure stars in languor having known
The sorrows all the centuries provide,
   With silver crowned me there, remote and lone.

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We had mostly nice weather on Friday after the crazy rain and winds of Thursday! I did a bunch of chores and a bunch more scanning, which really counts more as a pleasure than work, and sent more photos to Holly, who had family stories about some of the events. Pokemon Go had an unexpected April Fool's Day event, so I walked around catching Dittos, and we tried to sort out my in-laws' tax information before we had dinner with my parents. 

When we got home we watched the start of the women's Final Four, then took a break to watch Death on the Nile, which was, well, not good, but not unwatchable; Gadot wasn't as bad as the mockers said, though her character's dialogue was terrible which isn't her fault, and Bening had more screen time than Wright or Brand, while Hammer plays a character it's okay to see as creepy and misogynistic. Flowers in various Smithsonian gardens: 

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