De ramis cadunt folia, The leaves fall from the branches,
nam viror totus periit, The green world fades to brown. iam calor liquit omnia The warmth of summer steals away
et abiit; and goes to ground.
nam signa coeli ultima The sun seeks out the farthest signs
sol petiit. upon his round.
--Anon. ca 1200 AD --Transl. Mumpsimus 2020 AD
"farthest signs" = the winter signs of the Zodiac.
This is the first stanza of a poem which is actually about winter; but the lines seem perfect for fall. You can see the whole poem, with Helen Waddell's translation, here.
4 comments:
It looks as though you got your operating system working - good job. Was it running the year 1200 version?
Appreciating the Mumpsimus translation as altogether lovely, with enough bearing and stand-alone strength to not require any of the rest to be complete. And the golden yellow, scarlet, orange and red-brown colors in the photo are an eye-catching complement.
In the HW translation, wanness caught my attention as a word-fit not previously considered to describe the thin, pale look that follows summer fullness and October splendor.
The birds are definitely a-cold. They started burning through the seed this week. After a squirrel tore his way through the porch screen, I got tough and shut off the supply. No more peanut box, which was my attempt to distract and keep them off the feeders. Although that worked great at our previous house, all it brought here in the woods was more of them, a forest of squirrels with an insatiable taste for peanut-crack.
We also moved the feeder hanger, already equipped with a raccoon baffle and a pointy top, further from the house and cut off all the nearby branches from which they were launching themselves. And when even more daring hit or miss leaps from the roof followed, I sprang for a 9V battery-powered feeder that delivers an electric shock to squirrels and not to birds. It may sound mean but it works and the birds are once again free to feed without interference, which they've recently started doing at a noticeably different rate. I love hearing their wings flutter as they fly in to get what they need.
my asian gardeners at the local farmer's market told me today, "no more tomatoes, this the end."
I love fall! My cats do too. I've recently hit publish on an article on my blog about the Natural Care Flea and Tick Spray Review.
Post a Comment