¡feliz año nuevo desde albuquerque! | by el zopilote

¡feliz año nuevo desde albuquerque! West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico.: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, December 2016

Jorge Luis Borges: Hengist quiere hombres (449 A.D.)

Hengist quiere hombres.

Acudirán de los confines de arena que se pierden en largos mares,

de chozas llenas de humo, de tierras pobres, de hondos bosques

de lobos, en cuyo centro indefinido está el Mal.

Los labradores dejarán el arado y los pescadores las redes.

Dejarán sus mujeres y sus hijos, porque el hombre sabe que en

cualquier lugar de la noche puede hallarlas y hacerlos.

Hengist el mercenario quiere hombres.

Los quiere para debelar una isla que todavía no se llama Inglaterra.

Le seguirán sumisos y crueles.

Saben que siempre fue el primero en la batalla de hombres.

Saben que una vez olvidó su deber de venganza y que le dieron

una espada desnuda y que la espada hizo su obra.

Atravesarán a remo los mares, sin brújula y sin mástil.

Traerán espadas y broqueles, yelmos con la forma del jabalí,

conjuros para que se multipliquen las mieses, vagas cosmogonías,

fábulas de los hunos y de los godos.

Conquistarán la tierra, pero nunca entrarán en las ciudades que Roma

abandonó, porque son cosas demasiado complejas para su mente

bárbara.

Hengist los quiere para la victoria, para el squeo, para la corrupción

de la carne y para el olvido.

Hengist los quiere (pero no lo sabe) para la fundación del mayor imperio,

para que canten Shakespeare y Whitman, para que dominen el mar

las naves de Nelson, para que Adán y Eva se alejen, tomados de la

mano y silenciosos, del Paraíso que han perdido.

Hengist los quiere (pero no lo sabrá) para que yo trace estas letras.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): Hengist quiere hombres (449 A.D.), from El oro de los tigres 1972

Twenty Seventeen | by Vincenzo Caniparoli

Twenty Seventeen. First sun of the year. Nesquik pinhole can + RC paper + new years eve "exhaust" wine (+ Vitamin C + soda): photo by Vincenzo Caniparoli, 1 January 2017

Hengist Wants Men (449 A.D.)

Hengist wants men. They will report from sandy borders lost in the vast sea, from smoky hovels, from starving lands, from deep wolf-prowled woods, somewhere in the center of which Evil dwells. The peasants will leave the plough, the fishermen their nets. They will leave their women and children, for men know that anywhere in the night they can find women and make children. Hengist the mercenary wants men. He needs them to subdue an island not yet called England. They will follow him, submissive and cruel. They know he was always the best in the combat of men. They know how once he forgot his code of vengeance and they handed him a naked sword and the sword did its work. They will cross the seas with oars, with neither mast nor compass. They will bring with them swords and bucklers, boar-shaped helmets, spells to fatten the crops, rough creation myths, the tales of the Huns and Goths. They will conquer the earth, but never enter the cities Rome abandoned, things much too complex for the savage mind. Hengist wants them for victories, for rape and plunder, for depravity, for forgetfulness. Hengist wants them (though he doesn't know it) to found the greatest of empires, so that Shakespeare and Whitman may sing, that Nelson's ships may control the seas, that Adam and Eve may leave lost Paradise far behind, hand in hand with wandering steps and slow. Hengist wants them (though he will never know it) so that I may form these letters.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): Hengist quiere hombres (449 A.D.), from El oro de los tigres 1972, English version by Robert Mezey and Richard Barnes

Vilvoorde, Belgium: photo by Koos Fernhout, 1 March 2006

Hengist wants men, A.D. 449

Hengist wants men.

They will rally from the edges of sand which dissolve into broad seas, from huts filled with smoke, from threadbare landscapes, from deep forests haunted by wolves, in whose vague centre Evil lurks.

The ploughman will abandon the plough and the fisher-men their nets.

They will leave their wives and children, for a man knows that anywhere in the night he can encounter the one and engender the other.

Hengist the mercenary wants men.

He wants them to subdue an island which is not yet called England.

Cowed and vicious, they will follow him.

They know him always to have been the first among men in battle.

They know that once he forgot his vow of vengeance and that they gave him a naked sword and that the naked sword did its work.

They will try their oars against the seas, with neither compass nor mast.

They will bear swords and bucklers, helmets in the likeness of the boar’s head, spells to make the cornfields multiply, vague cosmogonies, legends of the Huns and the Goths.

They will conquer the ground, but never will they enter the cities which Rome abandoned, for these are things too complicated for their primitive minds.

Hengist wants them for the victory, for the pillaging, for the corruption of the flesh and for oblivion.

Hengist wants them (but he does not know it) for the founding of the greatest of empires, for the singing of Shakespeare and Whitman, for Nelson’s ships to rule the sea, for Adam and Eve to be banished, hand in hand and silent, from the Paradise they have lost.

Hengist wants them (but he cannot know it) so that I may form these letters.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): Hengist quiere hombres (449 A.D.), from El oro de los tigres 1972, English version by Alastair Reid

Powder Toss. Skiakook, Oklahoma.: photo by Wade Harris, 4 November 2016

State Highway 33 | by Photographs By Wade

State Highway 33. Drumright, Oklahoma.: photo by Wade Harris, 24 November 2016

[Untitled, Utah]: photo by Lucas DeShazer, 15 December 2016

Enterprise, Oregon: photo by Lucas DeShazer, 16 December 2016

Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, 1 January 2017

all our revels

Welcome, little sheep... Come in and have a nice rest...: image via @RevolutionSyria, 29 December 2016

#Russian army in #Aleppo city #Syria #Russia: image via Waseem Masalmeh @WaseemMasalmeh, 29 December 2016

Last breath ahead of a ceasefire, #Douma, a little while ago. image via Mohamed Abazeed @AbazidMohamad, 29 December 2016

SYRIA - A boy runs past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the rebel-held area of Daraa. #AFP: image via Mohamed Abazeed @AbazidMohamad, 1 January 2017

IRAQ - Iraqi forces patrol Al-Intisar area in eastern Mosul after recapturing it in an ongoing military operation against IS. By @ahmedafp: image Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 January 2016

Revelers gathered on Saturday night to celebrate New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square: image via NYT Photo @nytimesphoto, 1 January 2016

What was it @NickKristof warns of in @nytimes op-ed on day 1 of '17, stenography journalism? #offonrightfoot #PARTYON: image via Reading the Pictures @ReadingThePix, 1 January 2016

Chinese women wearing masks inside a bus in Beijing as the capital of China is blanketed by smog on Friday. China has long had some of the worst air in the world, blamed on its reliance on coal and a surplus of older, less efficient cars. It has set pollution reduction goals, but also has plans to increase coal mining capacity and eased caps on production when faced with rising energy prices. #China #Pollution: photo by Andy Wong/AP; image via AP Images @AP_Images, 30 December 2016

UAE - Men walk their camels across the Liwa desert during the Liwa Moreeb Dune Festival. By @KarimSahibAFP #AFP: image Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 January 2016

INDIA - A Kashmiri fisherman casts his net from his boat during a dense fog day on the Dal Lake in Srinagar. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 1 January 2016

Dead Timber in Water | by Photographs By Wade

Dead Timber in Winter. Osage County, Oklahoma.: photo by Wade Harris, 23 November 2016

TOM CLARK

Monday, 2 January 2017

Jorge Luis Borges: Hengist quiere hombres / Hengist wants men (449 A.D.) / all our revels

Jorge Luis Borges: Hengist quiere hombres (449 A.D.)

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