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Sunday 31 January 2010

History


.


File:Ampolleta de corredera.jpg




Don't know much about history
But I know the sandglass says time is always running out

Don't know much about biology
But I know the winged figure of genius has a headache



File:Dürer Melancholia I.jpg




Which may have something to do with the human skull
Fading into the truncated rhombohedron

The way a watermark on a historical document fades
Into history (which I don't know much about)





File:Duerer wing of a blue roller.jpg





Marine sandglass: photo by Mcapdevilla, 2010 (Musée de la Marine, Paris)
Melencolia I: Albrecht Dürer, 1514
Flügel einer Blauraker (Wing of a Blue Roller, coracias garrulus): Albrecht Dürer, 1512 (Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

the sandglass may say
time is always running out
but actions speak loud
and the sand feels the gravity
of time and runs down
no matter how often the vessel
flips.

of course wittgenstein challenges us
about our knowledge of anything

but historically
i do know that i love you
and one and one are three
biomagically

TC said...

When the vessel flips, the wig bubbles drift.

Interesting about the threes, Zev. (Usually I work in twos... or ones.)

What constitutes a picture is that its elements are related to one another in a determinate way. A picture is a fact (&c.).

So says LW in speaking of how a picture is related to reality.

"*That* is how a picture is attached to reality; it reaches straight out to it."

I am thinking of elements related to one another in an indeterminate way. Reaching straight out through it.

And of course this is not even to speak of Sam Cooke. (Don't know much about the science book. Or the French I took, & c.)

Anonymous said...

is a picture a fact after photoshop? LW would have had a time of it in the 21st century.

Anonymous said...

i have always been fascinated by how the sum is greater than the parts. thats why poems work for me.

Jon said...

love the line on the watermark fading into history... quite an embodiment of the movement/flow of time

TC said...

Thank you Jon,

I'm so conscious of that movement and flow, of being swept along in it.

Many things are carried along on the flood, but I don't suppose sorting them out matters very much to the flood.

By the way, thanks for your comment on "Nouns" a few days back. It was that comment which gave me the courage (permission?) to follow through with the other parts of speech.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,
Thanks for these lovely Durer's -- "Melancholia" with (your) headache (maybe that's why she's got that look? those girls at the beach didn't have THAT look!) and that amazing (hawk's) wing, never before seen (by me I mean). As the picture reaches right out into reality, as the word might also (?), "as the word indicates" --

2.1

pink-red line of cloud above still black
trees, white circle of moon below branch
in foreground, sound of waves in channel

“exaggerating the color not
far away,” impression

abode, gathered into itself,
as the word indicates

grey-white cloud on horizon beside point,
tree-lined green of ridge across from it

Mariana Soffer said...

Beautifull post, could not forget to think about the pre-socratic greeks that believed time was circular. And also about the song that says history repeating, sang by the wonderfull sherlly. Not to mention how things are always the same but dressed by different words.

TC said...

The musical offering.

First, the Sam Cooke classic:

Don't know much about history

And here's Mariana's pertinent pre-Socratic entry, sung by Shirley Bassey:

History repeating

The history of melancholy: an "abode, gathered into itself,/ as the word indicates"?

Anonymous said...

What an amazing figure the circle is. Seasons, history, life, your poem. Everything comes back. Nothing is ever lost.

TC said...

Lucy,

Indeed it would be very lovely to think so.

Perhaps the perception of the closing of the circle requires a bit of trust on our part.

I suppose if and when we are able to pull back and see the whole from a cosmic perspective, we do see that completeness, the seeming inevitability of it.

Whereas when we get caught up in the ant's-eye-view which is unfortunately the everyday perspective of many of us, it gets harder to see it all coming back round. That's when the headaches would develop.

~otto~ said...

Hahahaha

Well played, sir

billymills said...

You're definitely an A student, Tom

TC said...

Stephen,

Have been thinking about why those girls at the beach didn't have THAT look, whereas the winged figure of genius did.

Might it have been the invigorating effect of the very cold water?


Otto, Billy,

Would just wish that the game go on yet awhile.

Then perhaps I might at last figure out what a slide rule is for.

Anonymous said...

wouldn't it be great
to control to own to
beat to meet with as
an equal the sands
of time

hour glass
atlast
it will never
happen