Notes about the BEES of Rilke & Balthus

"The word beauty is coming back into style, after having been under something of a cloud all during the twentieth century. . . . ' We are the bees of the invisible,' Rilke wrote to a friend in November, 1925: ' . . . our task is to impress this preliminary; transient earth upon ourselves with so much suffering and so passionately that its nature rises up again ‘invisibly' within us. . . . We ceaselessly gather the honey of the visible, to store it up in the great golden beehive of the Invisible.'" Louise Cowan, Ph.D. http://dallasinstitute.org/listenandview_read_thefrailstrengthofbeauty.html


A BIT OF POETRY
"Everything beckons to us to perceive it,
murmurs at every turn, 'Remember me!'
A day we passed, too busy to receive it,
will yet unlock us all in its treasury.

"Who shall compute our harvest? Who shall bar
us from the former years the long-departed?
What have we learned from living since we started,
except to find in others what we are?

"Except to re-enkindle commonplace?
O house, O sloping field, O setting Sun!
Your features form into a face, you run,
you cling to us, returning our embrace!

"One space spreads through all creatures equally --
inner-world-space. Birds quietly flying go
flying through us. O, I that want to grow!
The tree I see outside it's growing in me!

"I have a house within when I need care.
I have a guard within when I need rest.
The love that I have had! -- Upon my breast
the beauty of the world clings, to weep there." Rainer Maria Rilke
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0Gurdjieff/beesoftheinvisibleworld_web.pdf


"Balthus' adolescents are Rilke's 'bees of the invisible,' taking in from books, from daydreaming, from as yet ambiguous longing, from staring out windows at trees, sustenances that will be available in time as Proustian ripenesses, necessities of the heart.... Where in Greek writing you always find a running account of all the senses in intimate contact with the world, in Latin you find instead a pedantry accustomed to substituting some rhetorical convention for honest and immediate perception. Balthus has Greek wholeness." Guy Davenport, "Balthus" in 'Every Force Evolves A Form', North Point Press, San Francisco, 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthus

Aeneas slaying Turnus (Aeneid XII)

from oil painting by Luca Giordano (1634-1705)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnus

ANACREONTA #12 : my translation

[ pro comiti mihi amicoque, SamWise ]

ANACREONTEA #12

Folks say the girly Attis went
mad, howling in the highlands
after his lovely Kybaby; folks
drink the prophesying waters
of laureled god Phoibos Apollo
along Claros' slopes, go mad
and shout prophecy. I want to
get loose wi' the Loosener god.
Satiated with the sweets of my
girlfriend, I want more madness!

Greek Text:

οἱ μὲν καλὴν Κυβήβην
τὸν ἡμίθηλυν Ἄττιν
ἐν οὔρεσιν βοῶντα
λέγουσιν ἐκμανῆναι.
οἱ δὲ Κλάρουπαρ' ὄχθαις
δαφνηφόροιο Φοίβου
λάλον πιόντες ὕδωρ
μεμηνότες βοῶσιν.
ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦ Λυαίου
καὶ τοῦ μύρου κορεσθεὶς
καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς ἑταίρης
θέλω, θέλω μανῆναι.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claros

ANACREONTA #53 : my translation

Dedicated to my friends Paul Erdunast and Thomas Copley Catterall,
upon the occasion of their receiving accepts from the Worcester
and St. Anne's Colleges of the University of Oxford.


When I push my way into a throng of young men,
my youthful vigor returns, and then, I must dance;
although an old man, I turn into a bird on the wing;
then I am totally crazy; I am in an euphoric frenzy:
Hand me a garland! I want to be clad in a beast pelt!
Grey old age is at this moment far from me,
and I shall dance as a youth among youths.
Some one bring me the harvest wine of Bacchus,
so the god may see for himself the strong old man:
who has learned to celebrate;
who has learned to carouse;
who has learned to gracefully be mad.

Greek Text:
ὅτ ἐγὼ 'ς νέων ὅμιλον
ἐσορῶ, πάρεστιν ἥβα.
τότε δή, τότ' ἐς χορείην
ὁ γέρων ἐγὼ πτεροῦμαι,
παραμαίνομαι, κυβηβῶ.
παράδος· θέλω στεφέσθαι.
πολιὸν δ' ἑκὰς τὸ γῆρας·
νέος ἐν νέοις χορεύσω,
Διονυσίης δέ μοί τις
φερέτω ῥοὰν ὀπώρης,
ἵν ἴδῃ γέροντος ἀλκὴν
δεδαηκότος μὲν εἰπεῖν,
δεδαηκότος δὲ πίνειν,
χαριέντως τε μανῆναι.

Aphrodite Anadyomene

A First Century mural in Pompei thought to be a copy of Apelles' painting, with Campaspe, sexual initiator of Alexander the Great, as model. Alexander is said to have liked the painting so well that he gifted ( μπαξίσι ) Apelles with Campaspe.

Seize the Day! EPODE XIII & ODE XI, L.1 of Horace

[ 'EPODE' conveys the sense of 'an enchantment' with special rhythm and repetition schemes (Xenophon & Plato), emerging participially from ἐπαείδω (Attic ἐπᾴδω ), future ἐπάσσομαι, meaning "to sing as an incantation"{Xen,Plat.) and later, "to sing to/in accompaniment"(Herodotus,Euripides). Absolutely, ἐπαείδων = "by means of charms"; 'ODE' derives from the Ancient Greek word for 'a song', and is a lyric, usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style.]

EPODE XIII

Horrida tempestas caelum contraxit et imbres
nivesque deducunt Iovem; nunc mare, nunc siluae
Threicio Aquilone sonant. rapiamus, amici,
Occasionem de die dumque virent genua
et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus.
tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo.
cetera mitte loqui: deus haec fortasse benigna
reducet in sedem vice. nunc et Achaemenio
perfundi nardo iuvat et fide Cyllenea
levare diris pectora Sollicitudinibus,
nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno:
'invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide,
te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi
findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simois,
unde tibi reditum certo Subtemine Parcae
rupere, nec mater domum caerula te revehet.
illic omne malum vino cantuque levato,
deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus adloquiis.


ODE XI, Liber 1

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi,quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppsitis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur fugerit invida
aetas : carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.

A Dangerous Experiment translated from the Latin of Fabulae Faciles

RUFUS Latin Fables Translation Group

This week’s participants are . . .

DJS David
DLP Diana
KAC Kathryn
LXD Lorcan
MJM Mark
YG Yaroslav

================

December 7 Collation
A Dangerous Experiment

TR 1 .. Dum fIliae rEgis hoc mIrAculum stupentEs intuentur, MEdEa ita
locUta est: "VidEtis quantum valeat medicIna.
TR 1 DJS As the king’s daughters observed this miracle, Medea spoke
thus : « Do you see how powerful this medicine is?
TR 1 DLP While the king’s daughters were looking upon this miracle in
astonishment, Medea said: “You see how powerful the art of healing
is.
TR 1 KAC While the daughters of the king, astounded, regarded this
miracle, Medea spoke thus: “You see how strong the medicine is.
TR 1 LXD While the king's daughters, being astounded, are staring in
wonder at this prodigy, Medea spoke thus, "You are seeing how powerful
this medicine is. (Rev.ed. ars magica - magic)
TR 1 MJM While the King’s astounded daughters were intently watching
this wonder, Medea said this: “You all see how he may be healthy
through this medicine.
TR 1 YG While king’s daughters looked at this miracle in amazement,
Medea said so: “You see how strong medicine is.
NOTE: The editor of the edition in Gutenberg, Kirtland, made a few
minor changes in the text. That’s an interesting one. That Medea
uses herbs seems more in line with ‘medicina,’ but her results seem
more like ‘ars magica’; but then I’d expect eye of newt and toad
venom.

TR 2 .. VOs igitur, sI vultis patrem vestrum in adulEscentiam
redUcere, id quod fEcI ipsae faciEtis.
TR 2 DJS So if you want your father to be brought back to his youth,
do the same things I have done.
TR 2 DLP So, if you wish your father to be restored to youth, you
yourselves will do that which I have done.
TR 2 KAC You therefore, if you wish your father to turn back into a
young man, should do that which I did yourselves
TR 2 LXD So y'all, if you wish to take your father back to his
adolescence, you will do the same things that I did.
TR 2 MJM Therefore, if you want your father to be restored to youth,
that which I did you all may yourselves do.
TR 2 YG Therefore, if you want to bring your father back to youth, you
will do yourself what I have done.

TR 3 .. VOs patris membra in vAs conicite; ego herbAs magicAs praebEbO."
TR 3 DJS Throw your father’s members into the vessel; I shall furnish
the magic herbs.
TR 3 DLP You, toss your father’s’s limbs in a cauldron; I will provide
the magic herbs.”
TR 3 KAC Throw the limbs of your father into a vessel; I will provide
the magic herbs.
TR 3 LXD Put your father's limbs into the kettle; I shall supply the
magic herbs.
TR 3 MJM Pile your father’s limbs together into a vase; I will provide
the magical herbs.
TR 3 YG Throw limbs of your father into the vase; I shall supply magical herbs.

TR 4 .. Quod ubi audItum est, fIliae rEgis cOnsilium quod dedisset
MEdEa nOn omittendum putAvErunt.
TR 4 DJS When they heard this, the king’s daughters thought that the
advice which Medea had given them should not be disregarded.
TR 4 DLP When they heard this, the king’s daughters believed that
Medea’s instructions must be followed to the letter.
TR 4 KAC When they had heard this, the king’s daughters did not think
they should disregard the plan which Media had given them.
TR 4 LXD Which, when it was heard, the daughters of the king had
thought they should disregard what Medea would give them.
TR 4 MJM When this was heard, the King’s daughters decided not to
neglect the advice which Medea had offered.
TR 4 YG Once this was heard, king’s daughters thought that the advice
which Medea gave should not be neglected.

TR 5 .. Patrem igitur Peliam necAvErunt et membra eius in vAs aEneum
coniEcErunt; nihil autem dubitAbant quIn hoc maximE eI prOfutUrum
esset.
TR 5 DJS So they killed their father Pelias and threw his body into
the vessel; and they had no doubt but that this was going to be of
great advantage to him.
TR 5 DLP Therefore, they killed their father, Pelias, and threw his
limbs into a copper cauldron; for they had no doubt at all that this
would benefit him greatly.
TR 5 KAC Therefore they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs
into a bronze vessel; however they doubted not that this would be of
great benefit to him.
TR 5 LXD So they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs into
the copper kettle, for they didn't doubt that this would be very
beneficial for him.
TR 5 MJM Therefore they killed their father Pelias and piled his limbs
together into a bronze vase; moreover they did not doubt in any way
that this would be the greatest benefit for him.
TR 5 YG So they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs into a
bronze vase; moreover, they didn’t doubt that by doing this they
helped him greatly.

TR 6 .. At rEs omnInO aliter EvEnit ac spErAverant, MEdEa enim nOn
eAsdem herbAs dedit quibus ipsa Usa erat.
TR 6 DJS But the king turned out completely otherwise from what they
were expecting, for Medea did not give them the same herbs which she
herself had used.
TR 6 DLP But the affair turned out altogether differently than they
had hoped; for Medea did not administer the same herbs which she had
used before.
TR 6 KAC But the matter came out entirely otherwise than they had
hoped, for Medea did not give them the same herbs as those which she
had used herself.
TR 6 LXD But it turned out altogether otherwise than they had hoped,
for Medea didn't give them the herbs which she had used.
TR 6 MJM But the affair turned out entirely otherwise then they had
hoped, for Medea did not give them the same herbs which she herself
had used.
TR 6 YG But things came out wholly different than they hoped, for
Medea didn’t give the same herbs that she had used herself.

TR 7 .. Itaque postquam diU frUstrA exspectAvErunt, patrem suum rE
vErA mortuum esse intellExErunt.
TR 7 DJS And so, after they had waited for a long time, they realized
that their father has in fact died.
TR 7 DLP And so, after they had waited a long time in vain, they
realized that their father was, in fact, dead.
TR 7 KAC And so after they had waited in vain for a long time, they
realized that their father was truly dead.
TR 7 LXD So they waited in vain for a long time afterwards, before
they knew for a fact that their father was truly dead.
TR 7 MJM Therefore after they waited for a long time in vain, they
realized that their father was really dead.
TR 7 YG And so after they waited in vain for a long time, they
understood that their father was really dead.

TR 8 .. HIs rEbus gestIs MEdEa sE cum coniuge suO rEgnum acceptUram
esse spErAbat; sed cIvEs cum intellegerent quO modO PeliAs periisset,
tantum scelus aegrE tulErunt.
TR 8 DJS Having accomplished all this, Medea was expecting that she,
together with her spouse would receive the throne; but when the
subject heard how Pelias had perished, they were greatly indignant.
TR 8 DLP With these deeds accomplished, Medea hoped that she would
receive the crown with her husband; but his subjects knew how Pelias
had perished, and they were indignant at so evil a crime.
TR 8 KAC Having managed this situation, Medea hoped that she would
seize the kingdom with her husband, but when the citizens understood
in what way Pelias had perished, they could scarcely bear such
wickedness.
TR 8 LXD After these deeds were carried out, Medea was hoping that she
was going to receive the royal authority along with her spouse, but
the citizens, when they learned how the king had been destroyed, took
such wickedness ill.
TR 8 MJM While these things were happening, Medea was hoping that she
along with her husband would receive royal power; but the citizens,
when they understood in what manner Pelias had perished, bore so great
a crime with difficulty.
TR 8 YG After these things carried out, Medea hoped that she and her
husband would receive the throne; but citizens, when they learned how
Pelias had perished, were indignant at such great crime.

TR 9 .. Itaque IAsone et MEdEA E rEgnO expulsIs Acastum rEgem creAvErunt.
TR 9 DJS And so with Jason and Medea expelled from the realm, they
made Acastus king.
TR 9 DLP Accordingly, they banished Jason and Medea from the realm,
and made Acastus king.
TR 9 KAC And so, with Jason and Media expelled from the kingdom, they
made Acastus king.
TR 9 LXD And so they made Acastus king, after Jason and Medea were driven out.
TR 9 MJM Therefore, when Jason and Medea were banished from the
kingdom, they appointed Acastus king.
TR 9 YG And after they banished Jason and Medea from the kingdom, they
made Acastus the king.

If interested in joining us in this or another Latin or Greek study group, see:
http://www.hortuslegendo.com/home

http://www.quasillum.com/study/index.php

Exhibition on love in antiquity opens in Athens, Greece

Exhibition on love in antiquity opens in Athens

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece — When it came to endearments, Philonides wasn't a man of subtlety.
The lid of a small 5th century B.C. Greek vase, intended as a gift to a
flute-player named Anemone, bore a picture of male and female genitalia. To avoid any
misunderstanding, Philonides and Anemone's names were inscribed next to the appropriate parts.

The 2,500-year-old find, from a Greek museum's collection, is part of a groundbreaking new exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens dedicated to the ancient Greek god of love Eros.

What organizers say is the biggest-ever display of its kind brings together more than 270 artifacts from Greek and international museums, spanning a millennium from the 6th century B.C. to early Christian times.

Exhibits, representing the sacred and profane, the graphic and mundane, range from a 2,500-year-old love note and a spurned lover's deadly curse to a recreation of a Roman brothel.

"It is very easy to write about love, to read about love, even easier perhaps to fall in love, but it is extremely difficult to convey love through art," Cycladic Museum director Nikos Stampolidis said Wednesday,"Which is why there have been very few (archaeological) exhibitions about love."

"We tried to look at it not only as an abstract force of fertility or a god
as represented in ancient sculpture or painting, but also as a human value and a daily act," Stampolidis said.

Most exhibits make for easy family viewing, including marble masterpieces such as the Louvre's winged Eros stringing his bow — a Roman copy of a late classical bronze — and the 2nd century A.D. complex of Eros kissing goddess of the soul, Psyche, from Rome's Capitoline Museums.

Early Greek writers refer to Eros, whom the Romans called Cupid, as a primordial force second only to Chaos and Earth in the order of creation. Others see him as a lesser divinity whose mother was Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.

"Ancient writers used hundreds of adjectives for love," Stampolidis said.
"Invincible, immortal, uncertain, sleepless, thief of reason, sweet but also bitter, running swiftly on a path of fire."

The display unblushingly looks into love in religion and marriage, the status of women in ancient society, homosexuality and prostitution.

First comes Aphrodite suckling the baby Eros, a theme reflected in Christian
representations of the Virgin and Child, aiming his darts and even as an allegory of death.

The baroque affairs of the ancient gods are followed by love in everyday life: Demure vase paintings of marriage in classical Greece; a love note from one Arkesimos bidding his girlfriend Eumelis to come "with as much haste as possible;"
a curse on a lead tablet from a woman wishing a deadly fever on a certain Hermias who spurned her affections.

The earthier section is upstairs, where museum officials advise parents
accompany children under 16. There's a recreation of a room from a Roman brothel excavated in Pompeii, vase paintings with 'graphic sex scenes involving all imaginable combinations — what Stampolidis called "a kind of Kama Sutra" — even a stone altar shaped as a giant phallus.

"Nothing was obscene for the ancients," Stampolidis said. "We must look at things in an open way, and we wanted to present the beauty (of love) through the aesthetics of ancient Greek and Roman art so as to gain a different reading of the ancient world."

"Eros, from Hesiod's Theogony to late antiquity" opens Thursday and runs until April 5.

On the Net:

http://eros.fabulous.gr/

Σαλούστιος, Salustus the Philosopher

"The world, one may say, is a Myth in which bodies and things are visible; but souls and minds, hidden." Σαλούστιος, 'Sallustius the philosopher", or Sallust, a Fourth Century A.D. philosopher and a friend of the Roman (and Byzantine) Emperor Julian, wrote the treatise 'On the Gods and the Cosmos', which has been called a catechism of Fourth Century GrecoRoman Pagans. Sallustius' work owes much to Iamblichus of Chalcis, who synthesized Platonism with Pythagoreanism and theurgy, and also to the Emperor Julian's philosophical writings.

http://www.hermetic.com/texts/on_the_gods-1.html

http://nekkidass.blogspot.com/2008/07/emperor-julian-attempting-to-make-peace.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate

Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης (Diodorus Siculus)

Diodorus Siculus, whose name I first encountered this morning in Gregory Nagy's 'Greek Mythology and Poetics'is known for his universal history, 'Bibliotheca historica', which seems to have been the equivalent of an NYT bestseller among the literati of the GrecoRoman world around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar and Jesus Christ.

One can get a taste of this important work at:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html

Friendship & Community

"The great sociologist Max Weber identified a pattern in the development of religious groups that he called the 'routinisation of charisma'. This is the phenomenon whereby the followers of a 'charismatic' religious teacher attempt to perpetuate their cohesion and purpose by codifying a doctrine, formulating rules and founding institutions. This process is probably necessary, yet how often, in the history of religious movements, it seems to contribute to the loss of what was most vital in the founder's vision.
A striking historical example of this phenomenon is the rapid rise and equally rapid ossification of the Franciscan Order within the Catholic Church. The Order, inspired by the leadership and example of Saint Francis himself, grew very swiftly in his lifetime. Not long after his death, however, a serious conflict developed between two wings – the 'spirituals', who wanted to stick to the pure vision of Francis, and the 'conventuals', who wanted to establish the Franciscans on the same lines as the other monastic orders of the time. The conflict finally ended in the triumph of the conventuals and – tragically – the execution of some of the spirituals.
Although Franciscans remain numerous in the Catholic Church to this day, they are divided into many separate orders, for the same tension has been played out again and again since that time. What is more, the bitterness of the original conflict seems to show that Francis failed to transmit his own inspiration fully. The most likely explanation of his failure is that he allowed his order to grow too fast for the successful communication (and therefore the preservation) of his spiritual vision. There was no possibility that his influence – his spiritual friendship, as one might call it – could be transmitted throughout such a rapidly expanding body.
One lesson from this story is that a spiritual community can only expand at the speed at which a circle of friendships can grow. Otherwise it becomes merely an institution. An institution may still be a force for good in the world: it may still be animated here and there, from time to time, with flashes of the original fire, but in itself it is something less than a spiritual community. A mere institution lacks the spiritual community's harmonious unity – its 'oneness in mind' – and its spiritual vitality.
Let me emphasise that I am not saying that 'institutions' as such are the enemy of harmony or vitality. Actually, they are indispensable if a spiritual group wishes to grow beyond a small, private circle, to have a real influence on the world. But institutional growth must be the servant of an expanding network of friends, not a substitute for it.
A test of the spiritual vitality of any spiritual institution is therefore whether there are strong friendships among its members. A clue would be found in the relative importance given to friendship over other kinds of relationship. If, on examining such a group, one saw that even married members put more emphasis on their spiritual friendships than on their family relationships (while not shirking their family duties, of course) it would augur well for the survival of that fellowship as a true spiritual community. One should also, however, consider whether the members not only got on well among themselves, but were also friendly to people beyond their own charmed circle. True friendship is not exclusive; it always includes a willingness to make new friends."
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/friendship.html


Kuan Yin Myth http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/

'The Red Pagan' by Alfred George Stephens (1865-1933)

"Literature is the human mind's effective manifestation in written language. That is put forward as the best definition attainable. For effective, if you like, read forceful or forcible. Everything is in the adjective. Artistic would be more satisfying in one sense; but what is artistic? — where is your criterion of art or of beauty? No; beauty must be construed in terms of strength — it is a mode of strength, as heat is a mode of motion. When you say effective, you do not eliminate the taste-cavil, the quality-cavil, but you refer it to a quantity standard that is more intelligible, more ponderable. How much, and how many, and for how long, does a book impress, and move, and thrill? What active energy does it disengage? What is its equivalent in thought-rays? in emotion-volts? What is its force, its effect? Estimate that, find that, judge that, and you will know a book's universal value as Literature. This standard of force is the ultimate standard. Tastes differ with individuals, countries, and eras; but three and two are five, and twice five are ten, everywhere in the universe. The scale inevitably adjusts itself. Uncle Tom's Cabin impressed many, and much; but for how long? Catullus has moved much, and long ; but how many? We argue that Catullus writes better Literature than Harriet Stowe — because people of 'taste', people of 'culture', people of 'learning', prefer Catullus. Well, if it be so, in the long run Catullus's total force of achieved impressions will outweigh Harriet Stowe's. Her work dies; his lives through the ages. His mind's 'effective manifestation' surpasses hers.

Style is a requisite of Literature ; but what is style ? Merely an aid to effect. Individual taste may prefer the florid or the simple ; but florid style or simple is valuable only in so far as it impresses, gives force. Having defined Literature as the mind's effective manifestation in written language, you can proceed to define the things that go to make effect, and style is one of them. But style, and thought, and emotion, and interest, and melody, and picture — these are only factors in the total. The total is force. In the last resort Literature must be judged, like everything else, by the force it develops — the quantity of latent energy which it makes active. Then one must wait ten thousand years to judge what is Literature. Yes; and longer than that. But you can make provisional judgments as you go along. If the literary effect of Mrs. Stowe is at this century's end equivalent to I0;r, and the literary effect of Catullus is equivalent to only Jx, you can still calculate on the future and defend your preference of Catullus, or of Mrs. Stowe. Nobody does, of course, but that is the only way to do it which will hold logic-water. Between any human mind, as agent, and the whole multitude of human minds, as objects, the sole fixed standard of measurement possible is a standard of how much force exerted, on how many, for how long. All the other standards shift with time, and place, and individuals, and circumstances.

So that, for humanity, Literature is the human mind's effective manifestation in written language. But, for the individual appraiser, there is a standard much more satisfactory, much more easily applied. Truth is — what you believe. Literature is — what you like. Admire the corollary: What I like is Literature....

Literature is one road to the Golden Age, one help to fix the date of the good time traditionally coming. And the object of existence on this earth is to have a good time. The only human way of having a good time is to get emotions, impressions, sensations — the most and most varied and most intense sensations that your brain can give. Every human being tries instinctively to live the most intensely conscious kind of life that he is capable of living, and to remain conscious for the longest possible period. A wise man would deliberately set himself to improve his brain and its attached body to the utmost limit of the cosmic and hereditary tether. He would get his sensations as he extended his capacity for sensations, but he would always look forward to the time when his brain would be as keen and full as he could make it by normal vital processes. Then, when his brain was full, he would start to absorb fully the world of sensations. Joy, grief, pleasure, pain, natural beauty, artistic beauty, the satisfaction of knowledge and the satisfaction of power, love, fatherhood, peace, war, the light of dawn and the light of woman's eyes, books and friends, music and mystery ; — he would welcome them all to the limit of his power to receive them all, when considered together with his mortality, his chance of continuing to receive all in the most intense measure. Deliberately he would milk the world of sensations into the bucket of his brain. And deliberately, if he understood that there was an intensity of sensation that transcended the normal power of his brain, he would artificially stimulate his brain, counting the cost, and realising that he was giving perhaps a day of normal life for a moment of life transcendent. Deliberately, a wise man would know excess and fatigue, intoxication and abstinence — for the pleasure of knowledge, and for the pleasure of excess and intoxication. And his motto would be, not 'Never too much', but 'Rarely too much' — 'Too much' accepted with the knowledge of his power to refuse if he so willed; 'Too much' welcomed because, on a calculation of chances, 'Too much' paid. Of course many philosophies contradict this philosophy. Yet observe that every philosopher adopts this philosophy. Disciples may swallow the universe in a pill of dogma, but the teacher compounds the pill from tested sensations.

Before the sheep can follow safely, the shepherd must know the path. Thus we see a long line of prophets, from Buddha to Tolstoy, engaged in regenerating the race with the elderly morals drawn from their unregenerate youth, and urging the duty of life-renunciation upon men who have never known the pleasure of life-acceptance. That is not pretty Nature's way. 'The world was made when a man was born. He must taste for himself the forbidden springs. He can never take warning from old-fashioned things. He must fight as a boy; he must drink as a youth. He must kiss, he must love; he must swear to the truth of the friend of his soul. He must laugh to scorn the hint of deceit in a woman's eyes that are clear as the wells of Paradise. And so he goes on till the world grows old; Till his tongue has grown cautious, his heart has grown cold; Till the smile leaves his mouth and the ring leaves his laugh. And he shirks the bright headache, you ask him to quaff. He grows formal with men, and with women polite, and distrustful of both when they're out of his sight. Then he eats for his palate and drinks for his head, And loves for his pleasure — and it's time he were dead....'

But, instead of dying, he lies down under a bo-tree or dons a peasant's smock, and distils delusive wisdom from the dregs of pomp and gayety that he can no longer enjoy. EXPERIENCE teaches; but only one's own experience. To gain your gospel you must earn your gospel. When Mrs. Besant visited our land Australia, I remember asking her if she could have accepted Theosophy at the outset of her public career. She reflected, and doubted, and opined, No; she had needed struggle: her life had fed a lamp to light her path. Ponder the exemplary case of Annie Besant. To many people she is a puzzle, a paradox. They contrast the creed she forsook with the creed she embraced, neo-Materialism with neo-Theosophy; and they see that the two are absolutely antagonistic, mutually exclusive. Yet here is a woman who passes from one to the other 'somewhat suddenly', in Bradlaugh's weighed and guarded phrase ; almost without a struggle, as it appears to others. In a moment she turns her mind upside-down, astounding friends by the ease with which she quits long-cherished convictions, and becoming immediately no less ardent and obstinate a champion of her new faith than of her old. The fruit of twenty years of strenuous thought tumbles at a single glance from the 'brilliant eyes' of Madame Blavatsky. Admitting her honesty, her sanity, how possibly account for a revolution so radical? But consider. The very violence of the contradiction between Annie Besant the Materialist and Annie Besant the Theosophist implies a close bond of unity. For it is of the essence of things that likeness breeds opposition, unlikeness apposition. Extremes meet ; complexity is nearest sim- plicity; and the universe rings with the chime of contraries. Perchance our paradox may sit on the in- most verge of harmony...."

There's a lot more to this book, 'The Red Pagan', from which this selection was excerpted; read more at:
http://www.archive.org/details/redpagan00steprich

SATYRICON - a translation project 83.12 - 84.3

SATYRICON sentences 83.12 - 84.3


83.12 Ecce autem, ego dum cum ventis litigo, intravit
pinacothecam senex canus, exercitati vultus et qui videretur
nescio quid magnum promittere, sed cultu non proinde
speciosus, ut facile appareret eum hac nota
litteratum esse, quos odisse divites solent.

LXD But look, while I'm litigating with the breezes, an old white-haired man, with a troubled look, entered. There seemed to hang about him some nebulous promise of greatness. From his neglected grooming, it was evident that he was a man of letters, the sort whom wealthy men usually despise.

83.13 Is ergo ad latus constitit meum.

LXD Then he stood close beside me.

83.14 "Ego, inquit, poeta sum et, ut spero, non humillimi
spiritus, si modo coronis aliquid credendum est, quas etiam
ad imperitos deferre gratia solet.

LXD "I," said he, "am a poet and, I hope, not one lacking in talent, if one is to put any stock by laurels (which however grace is accustomed to grant also to the inexperienced).

83.15 'Quare ergo, inquis, tam male vestitus es?'

LXD "Why then," you ask, "are you so shabbily dressed?

83.16 Propter hoc ipsum.

LXD On account of this very fact.

83.17 Amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit.

LXD The love of creative genius never made anyone rich.

83.18 "Qui pelago credit, magno se fenore tollit; qui pugnas
et castra petit, praecingitur auro; vilis adulator picto
iacet ebrius ostro, et qui sollicitat nuptas, ad praemia
peccat.

LXD 'Whoever trusts the sea gains great profits for himself. Whoever seeks battles and barracks girds himself with gold.
The fawning flatterer lies drunk in his purple-bordered toga, and whoever wrecks marriages, sins for financial reward.

83.19 Sola pruinosis horret facundia pannis, atque inopi
lingua desertas invocat artes.

LXD Eloquence alone shivers from the frost in tattered rags, and calls upon the abandoned arts with his plaintive song.'

84.1 "Non dubie ita est: si quis vitiorum omnium inimicus
rectum iter vitae coepit insistere, primum propter morum
differentiam odium habet: quis enim potest probare diversa?

LXD "Without a doubt, it is thus: if anyone is unfriendly to all vices and sets in to conduct his life uprightly, he is regarded with hatred, primarily because his behavior is different; for who is able to tolerate differences?

84.2 Deinde qui solas exstruere divitias curant, nihil volunt
inter homines melius credi, quam quod ipsi tenent.

LXD And then, they who only care about accumulating wealth, don't want anything else to be considered better among all mankind than what they themselves possess.

84.3 Insectantur itaque, quacunque ratione possunt,
litterarum amatores, ut videantur illi quoque infra pecuniam
positi.

LXD So they persecute the lovers of letters in any way they are able, so that they may be seen as inferior to those with money.


END

Evelyn Waugh

"My knowledge of English literature derived chiefly from my home. Most of my hours in the form room for ten years had been spent on Latin and Greek, History, and Mathematics. Today I remember no Greek. I have never read Latin for pleasure and should now be hard put to compose a simple epitaph. But I do not regret my superficial classical studies. I believe that the conventional defence of them is valid; that only by them can a boy fully understand that a sentence is a logical construction and that words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity. Those who have not been so taught — most Americans and most women — unless they are guided by some rare genius, betray their deprivation."
-- Evelyn Waugh

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200305/hitchens

Kali & Shiva Bhairava in Union

SATYRICON - a translation project

SATYRICON lines 83.1-83.11 October 31, 2009 Happy Halloween!

83.1 In pinacothecam perveni vario genere tabularum
mirabilem.

LXD I walked into a gallery displaying a variety of wonderful paintings.

83.2 Nam et Zeuxidos manus vidi nondum vetustatis iniuria
victas, et Protogenis rudimenta cum ipsius naturae veritate
certantia non sine quodam horrore tractavi.

LXD There I saw the work of Zeuxis not yet marred by the wounds of time, and also handled (not without some measure of awe) Protogenes' cartoons, which rivaled the Truth of Nature herself.

83.3 Jam vero Apellis quam Graeci mon(kthmon appellant, etiam adoravi.

LXD But when I saw Apelles', he whom the Greeks call 'peg-leg' ( μονοκνημον ), I even kowtowed.

83.4 Tanta enim subtilitate extremitates imaginum erant ad
similitudinem praecisae, ut crederes etiam animorum esse
picturam.

LXD For his figures were limned with such subtlety that you would believe the picture to be of their souls as well.

83.5 Hinc aquila ferebat caelo sublimis Idaeum, illinc
candidus Hylas repellebat improbam Naida.

LXD In this one, the eagle was carrying the boy [Catamitus] from Mt. Ida up to the sublimity of heaven; in that, the candidly chaste Hylas was resisting the wicked Naiad.

83.6 Damnabat Apollo noxias manus lyramque resolutam modo
nato flore honorabat.

LXD Apollo was damning his noxious hands and decorating his harp, just now unstrung, with the new-born flower, Hyacinth.

83.7 Inter quos etiam pictorum amantium vultus tanquam in
solitudine exclamavi: "Ergo amor etiam deos tangit.

LXD Lost among which visions from beloved pictures, as though in a desert solitude, I yelled out,"So Love moves even the gods.!"

83.8 Iuppiter in caelo suo non invenit quod diligeret, sed
peccaturus in terris nemini tamen iniuriam fecit.

LXD Jupiter didn't get to find somebody in his heaven that he could love, so he was going to sow his wild oats on Earth, but wronged nobody.

83.9 Hylan Nympha praedata temperasset amori suo, si venturum
ad interdictum Herculem credidisset.

LXD The Nymph who ravished [deponent ppl.] Hylas would have had [plpf. subjunct. imperasset & credidisset] her longing under control, had she believed Hercules would be coming to debar her.

83.10 Apollo pueri umbram revocavit in florem, et omnes
fabulae quoque sine aemulo habuerunt complexus.

LXD Apollo brought back the shade of his beloved boy transformed into the Hyacinth flower. And they (of similar myths) all enjoyed unrivaled Love's embrace.

83.11 At ego in societatem recepi hospitem Lycurgo crudeliorem."

LXD But myself, I have attracted an elective affinity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elective_Affinities] more harrowing than with that Spartan lawgiver, Lycurgus, himself.
---------------------------

Catullus : Lesbia Nostra

Catullus 58 :
Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,
illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam
plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
glubit magnanimi Remi nepotes.

My translation :
Caelius, our own dear Lesbia, that very Lesbia,
our adored Lesbia, her whom alone Catullus
loved more than himself, more than his all,
down the crossroads and dark alleys she is
cleaning the bongs of great Remus' godsons.

The Belfort of Brugge (aka Belfry of Bruges)

"Drinking Song" from 'Belfry of Bruges & Other Poems'

"Come, old friend! Sit down and listen!
From the pitcher, placed between us,
How the waters laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!

Old Silenus, bloated, drunken,
Led by his inebriate Satyrs;
On his breast his head is sunken,
Vacantly he leers and chatters.

Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy crowns that brow supernal
As the forehead of Apollo'
And possessing youth eternal.

Round about him, fair Bacchantes,
Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves,of Zante's
Vineyards, sing delirious verses.

Thus he won, through all the nations,
Bloodless victories, and the farmer
Bore, as trophies and oblations,
Vines for banners, ploughs for armor.

Judged by no o'erzealous rigor,
Much this mystic throng expresses:
Bacchus was the type of vigor,
And Silenus of excesses.

These are ancient ethnic revels,
Of a faith long since forsaken;
Now the Satyrs, changed to Devils,
Frighten mortals wine-o'ertaken.

Now to rivulets from the mountains
Point the rods of fortune-dowsers;
Youth perpetual dwells in fountains,---
Not in flasks, and casks, and cellars.

Claudius, though he sang of flagons
And huge tankards filled with Rhenish,
From that fiery blood of dragons
Never would his own replenish.

Even Redi, though he chaunted
Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys,
Never drank the wine he vaunted
In his dithyrambic sallies.

Then with water fill the pitcher
Wreathed about with classic fables;
Ne'er Falernian threw a richer
Light upon Lucullus' tables.

Come, old friend, sit down and listen!
As it passes thus between us,
How its wavelets laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!"

Nota Bene the prudent New England temperance the poet works into this 'drinking song'.

Here's another diamond from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's same book:
http://www.portitude.org/literature/longfellow/pt-carillon.php

ΑΡΕΤΗ ΚΕΛΣΟΥ

What did ΑΡΕΤΗ (VIRTUS) actually mean to the Ancients?