Saturday, 23 July 2011

Hölderlin: Der Neckar (By the Waters of Synthetica)


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Treibgutsammlung_touristisch.JPG

Sammlung von Treibgut im östlichen Teil der ostfriesischen Nordseeinsel Juist (Niedersachsen, Deutschland) [Collection of floating debris in the eastern part of the East Frisian North Sea island of Juist (Lower Saxony, Germany)]
: photo by 4028mdk09, 25 September 2010



Und ihrer Gottesbilder auch dich begräbt,

..Denn lang schon einsam stehst du, o Stolz der Welt,

....Die nicht mehr ist.



And their statues of gods; for long now you have stood lonely, O pride of the world that is no more.


Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): from Der Neckar [The Neckar], 1800



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Treibgut_auf_dem_Neckar.JPG

Treibgut auf dem Neckar [Floating debris on the River Neckar]
: photo by 4028mdk09, 7 March 2010

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Rubbish_in_Lea.jpg


Rubbish floating on the River Lea, London
: photo by Iridescenti, 20 September 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/M%C3%BCll_nach_Sturm.JPG

Gesammelter Müll nach Sturm, fertig zum Abtransport, fotografiert auf der ostfriesischen Nordseeinsel Juist (Niedersachsen, Deutschland) [
Garbage collected after a storm, ready for shipment, photographed on the East Frisian North Sea island of Juist (Lower Saxony, Germany)]: photo by 4028mdk09, 5 October 2009

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Plastic_pollution_083.jpg


Plastic pollution, Gallipoli
: photo by Nevit, 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/St_Johns_%2834%29%2C_October_2009.JPG

Marine debris, St. John's Point, County Down, Northern Ireland
: photo by Ardfern, 5 October 2009

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Pollution_swan.jpg

Pollution: a Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) has built a nest using plastic garbage: photo by Thue, 28 May 2005

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Flostam_tern_island.JPG

Flotsam collected on beaches on Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals over one month: items collected were 288 miscellaneous plastic pieces, 13 fishing floats, 33 plastic bottles, two toys, 1 lightstick, 34 bottle caps, 1 lighter, 2 balls, 5 shoes, 3 fluorescent bulbs, 3 regular lightbulbs, 19 glass bottles, 1 metal flask, two baskets, 21 pieces of rope, one large (3 square foot) net ball and one large piece of styrofoam
: photo by Duncan Wright, U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, June 2006

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Hendersonm%C3%BCll.jpg

Marine debris on beach of Henderson, Pitcairn Islands
: photo by American, April 2001

File:Kure debris 440.jpg

Marine debris on the beach of Green island, Kure Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
: photo by Keeley Belva, 23 July 2007 (NOAA)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Kure_Marine_Debris.jpg

Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster) sitting on marine debris, Green Island, Kure Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
: photo by Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service; image by Telim tor, 2009

5 comments:

  1. Developing countries might have an excuse

    Yoff, Dakar, Senegal: on the beach

    http://edlhm.livejournal.com/7068.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tom,

    "O pride of the world that is no more."

    And what would Holderlin have thought, had he seen all this. . . .

    7.23

    light coming into fog against invisible
    ridge, shadowed green of cypress branch
    in foreground, wave sounding in channel

    all being in the same sense,
    in series of possible

    sometimes the whole picture,
    which, given material

    grey white of fog against top of ridge,
    pelican flapping to the left toward it

    ReplyDelete
  3. In any case there probably need be no excuse as that plastic trash on the beach in West Africa may well have originated in who knows where... Iceland?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those beautiful, proud-looking brown boobies. Curtis

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, Curtis, if there's anything that can (almost) make a bolus of plastic flotsam look good, it's a handsome flock of Brown Boobies.

    ReplyDelete