DAILY PHOTO: St. Catherine’s Church at Dusk, Frankfurt
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BOOKS: “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire
Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles BaudelaireMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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I read the 1909 Cyril Scott translation of Baudelaire’s poetry collection. It consists of 54 poems, including “Condemned Women” but not including others of the six poems that were banned in early editions and which only came to be included in later editions. (I did look up and read a couple translations each for the six poems — because censorship can’t be allowed to prevail. Not surprisingly, they are calm by today’s standards. It should be noted that Baudelaire played in symbolism, and so his poems – while ahead of their time in subject matter – didn’t tend toward explicit vulgarity in the first place.)
The Scott translation is all in rhymed verse, the largest share of it presented as sonnets — though there are some longer pieces (longer, but not long. It’s a quick read.) “The Broken Bell” and “Spleen” were highlights for me, but the whole collection is intriguing, evocative, and readable.
I enjoyed this collection tremendously, even with such an old translation. The hedonism, eroticism, and macabre of Baudelaire’s work creates an intense tone.
I’d highly recommend this collection for all poetry readers.
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“Gitanjali 35” by Rabindranath Tagore [w/ Audio]
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heave of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
NOTE: This poem is often entitled “Let My Country Awake,” particularly when it is anthologized independently of the larger Gitanjali poem.
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PROMPT: Opening Sentence
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
“From humble beginnings would come humbling ends.”
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DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Blissfulness Hill
Holdout [Tanka]
a tree’s last blossom
seems to wait til no one
is looking to drop.
what a thing it must be
to see a holdout yield.
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PROMPT: Objects / Can’t Live Without
I’ll need some sort of container capable of holding water, some variety of pointy stick, and something sharp like knapped flint or a length of hard metal.
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“Seeking a Hermit-Sage in Vain” by Jia Dao [w/ Audio]
I question a local boy under a pine.
He says, "Teacher is gathering herbs
right here on the mountain...
But who can say where?
The mountain is thick with clouds."
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Faint Day Moon [Haiku]
a daytime half moon,
feeble compared to at night,
yet I stop to look.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 