Strange Arts & Visual Delights
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The picture is of a 150-year-old American black walnut tree in France (https://www.promhaies.net/news/arbre-dici-et-dailleurs-le-noyer-noir-de-sablonceaux,6999/) To escape from the narrow pound of my own thought, I sometimes attempt to translate a poem. Here's one I've spent several hours on; the reward is the process. Walnut Tree (Le Noyer) by Rainer Maria Rilke i. Tree that in place proudly grows and bends all around the space of summer as it ends, tree whose volume, round and exuberant, is proof and epitome of all we want: I’ve seen your leaves redden as they are turning green; with that display of modesty your magnificence demands their punishment. ii. Tree, always in the center of all that’s about-- tree that savors heaven’s entire vault; like anyone else you turn here and there-- like an apostle who does not know where God will come down. . . . so to be sure, it aims to make itself round and holds out ripe arms. iii. Tree which perhaps within itself sees an ancient Tree Master among the serving trees! Tree that self-controls and slowly grows and bends into the shape that eludes the hazard of winds: full of austere forces your clear shade offers a leaf that refreshes, fruit that perseveres. NOTE: The original, like the translation, alternates between 2nd and 3rd person in addressing the tree.
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August 2024
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