Neval

Monday, May 25, 2009

Let us not slip the occasion

Fall'n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil;
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from thir destind aim.
But see the angry Victor hath recall'd
His Ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the Gates of Heav'n: The Sulphurous Hail
Shot after us in storm, oreblown hath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice
Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling, and the Thunder,
Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde,
The seat of desolation, voyd of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,
And reassembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire Calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,
If not what resolution from despare.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Dolphin Fresco from the Queen's apartment at Knosos

Sunday, May 17, 2009

chez moi

Image by Brian Negus via Flickr

my castle

Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris SEveille - Jacques Dutronc

Monday, May 11, 2009

Childe Harold

"Apostrophe to the Ocean"

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The Bright Stone of Honor and the Tomb of Marceau from Byron's Childe Harold: 1835

"Apostrophe
to the Ocean"

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Circle of Fraud

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region inhabited by a monster with the visage of a just man and reptile's body and stinging tail. Platonic tesselations of Riemann surfaces

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The beast, the monster, Geryon, swims up through the air,

passes mountains, breaks through walls and weapons

makes the whole world stink

(2-3).

Like the other guards we've encountered, Geryon represents what it is he precedes. Having been summoned by a symbol of simplicity and spiritualism, this beast of compound complexity and materialism has the face of an honest man

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benign and just in feature and expression

and under it his body was half reptile

(11-2).

Ciardi describes him as derived from a Spanish myth that, nonetheless, makes its way into a Grecian one through the connection of his having been killed by Hercules. Dante, Ciardi writes, probably relies upon a later tradition, which "represents him as killing and robbing strangers whom he lured into his realm," and may have drawn from Revelation 9: 9-20 in his depiction of him

che passa i monti e rompe i muri e l'armi! 2 past mountains, shatters walls and weapons!

Ecco colei che tutto 'l mondo appuzza!" 3 Behold the one whose stench afflicts the world!'

e accennolle che venisse a proda, 5 Then he signaled to the beast to come ashore

vicino al fin d'i passeggiati marmi. 6 close to the border of our stony pathway.

sen venne, e arrivò la testa e 'l busto, 8 beached its head and chest

ma 'n su la riva non trasse la coda. 9 but did not draw its tail up on the bank.

tanto benigna avea di fuor la pelle, 11 benevolent in countenance,

e d'un serpente tutto l'altro fusto; 12 but all the rest of it was serpent.

lo dosso e 'l petto e ambedue le coste 14 and back and chest and both its flanks

dipinti avea di nodi e di rotelle. 15 were painted and inscribed with rings and curlicues.

non fer mai drappi Tartari né Turchi, 17 in warp and woof or in embroidery on top,

né fuor tai tele per Aragne imposte. 18 nor were such colors patterned on Arachne's loom

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