[Dear WordPress readers, this looks way better on my site. Come visit or here’s the PDF if you prefer]
…like people living in a country whose language they know so little that with all manner of beautiful and profound things to say, they are condemned to the banalities of the conversation manual.
Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence.
……………………..afternoon.
the wife is in the garden.
he has her umbrella.
‘here,’ he says
though it’s not raining
it might.
he looks up
at the bellied clouds.
‘I’m nearly done,’ she says
taking another lateral
from the wisteria /
pushing her hair
out of her face
with the back of her wrist
she sees him
through the fall of dust and leaves,
‘thanks though.’
‘I was thinking,’ he says,
‘the garden really needs…’
but she had already
returned
to her work
in the undergrowth.
a splash of colour
was what he
was going to
say.
More on The Moon and Sixpence here – and something uplifting from Urthboy for you.
Very enjoyable. I have noticed it is terrible to be ignored, especially when one is lazy, thoughtless and redundant. Looks like a little rain on the way.
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Thanks Steve. Yes it’s raining here too.
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An elegant image to compliment an elegant poem.
Oddly I like not understanding the language around me, it allows me to construct the story and the sentiment that accompanies it at will.
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Thanks Cathy – (exactly :-))
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Lovely, lovely poem.
Also, it’s totally hard to be funny in another language, but so satisfying when you are 😉
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Thanks so much.
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Perfect. Vivid. Intuitive.
Check that first link, Peter, in “Come visit”. It drops me into a blank editor’s page.
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Thanks and thanks (link now fixed)
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When I try to speak French I sound like a three year old, so I can understand the Somerset Maugham quotation very well.
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