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Saturday 24 June 2017

Genocidal Culture Busker Haircut #18: Seferis: Fires of St. John / Days of Rage

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Iraq Mosul

Smoke from an explosion rises during fighting against Islamic State militants in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, Friday, June 23, 2017. Formally launched in October, the fight for Mosul has displaced more than 850,000 people.: photo by Felipe Dana/AP, 23 June 2017


#Iraq Iraqis fleeing Mosul after escaping the fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State (IS). Photo Mohamed El-Shahed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


#Iraq Iraqis arrive to the industrial district of Mosul as they flee the fighting between Iraqi forces and IS. Photo Mohamed El-Shahed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


#Iraq Iraqi civilians injured in a suicide attack as people were escaping Mosul, sit on an Iraqi forces vehicle. Photo Ahmad Al-Rubaye #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


Philippines says Islamist militants holed up in southern city have been cornered and their firepower is diminished: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 23 June 2017


#Afghanistan A Muslim offers his prayers on the last Friday of the Ramadan ahead of the Eid al-Fitr at a mosque in Jalalabad. Photo @Noorullah700: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


Among the crumbling buildings in the rebel-held Douma district, Syrians break fast during Ramadan Photo @BassamKhabieh: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 23 June 2017

India Kashmir Voilence

An Indian police officer comforts a wailing relative of Mohammad Ayoub Pandit, a policeman who was beaten to death, during a wreath laying ceremony at the police headquarters in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, June 23, 2017. Police and witnesses say an officer in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city has been beaten to death after he fired at a group of people who suspected him of spying on worshippers during the holiest night of the year for Muslims.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 23 June 2017


Emotional scenes were witnessed at the home of a police officer who was beaten to death by angry mob in Srinagar Last night.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 June 2017


Emotional scenes were witnessed at the home of a police officer who was beaten to death by angry mob in Srinagar Last night.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 June 2017


Emotional scenes were witnessed at the home of a police officer who was beaten to death by angry mob in Srinagar Last night.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 June 2017


Emotional scenes were witnessed at the home of a police officer who was beaten to death by angry mob in Srinagar Last night.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 June 2017


Kashmiri Muslims offer prayers on the eve of Jumat-ul-vida, the last Friday of Ramadan at Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 June 2017

Iran Israel Palestinians

The shadow of a paramilitary Basij member is cast on the image of the Israeli flag during an annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 23, 2017. Iran held rallies across the country, with protesters condemning Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and chanting "Death to Israel.": photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP, 23 June 2017

Iran Israel Palestinians

Portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a representation of the Israeli flag, burned by Iranian demonstrators lies on the ground in their annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 23, 2017. Iran held anti-Israel rallies across the country, with protesters condemning Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and chanting "Death to Israel.": photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP, 23 June 2017

 
GAZA - Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli security forces near Jabalia refugee camp yesterday. Photo @mohmdabed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017
 
Venezuela Crisis

A demonstrator walks near a burning truck during a protest on the Francisco Fajardo highway outside La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, June 23, 2017. More than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal.: photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP, 23 June 2017


#Venezuela A hooded demonstrator stands near a burning motorbike during an anti-government protest in Caracas. Photo @federicoparra #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


#India Muslim women visit the shrine of Maqbul E-Alam ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr in Ahmedabad. Photo Sam Panthaky #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017

India Ramadan

A pigeon flies over Indian Muslims praying outside the Mecca Masjid on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Hyderabad, India, Friday, June. 23, 2017. Muslims across the world are marking the holy month of Ramadan, a period of intense prayer, self-discipline, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.: photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP, 23 June 2017



A Somali woman walks past the scene of a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 22, 2017. A number of people are dead and several others wounded in the blast in Somalia's capital, police said Thursday, adding that the bomber was trying to drive into the police station's gate but detonated against the wall instead.: photo by Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP, 22 June 2017


Two men from Sudan talk on the deck of the Golfo Azzurro rescue vessel, after being rescued from a rubber boat out of control near the Libyan coast, on Thursday, June 22, 2017.: photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP, 22 June 2017 


#France View of the sun setting over the refinery of Donges. @LoicVenance #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017


#Russia A woman poses between columns of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Photo Yuri Kadobnov #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017

Insha Allah Azadi (Winner Takes Kashmir)


Times of Denial.
: image via Mirza Waheed @MirzaWaheed, 19 June 2017


Eid like celebrations in Kashmir . Pakistan won the #ChampionsTrophy2017Final. You made us proud. Love from #Kashmir. Stay safe Kashmiris.: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Insha Allah Azadi. #AikJeetAur #PakVsInd #Kashmir: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Unfortunate that Indian forces went on rampage in South #Kashmir after Pakistan's magnificent performance against India. #PakVsInd #Pakistan.: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Unfortunate that Indian forces went on rampage in South #Kashmir after Pakistan's magnificent performance against India. #PakVsInd #Pakistan.: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


#Kashmir right now #PakVsInd: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Love and respect Fakhar #PakvInd: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Meanwhile in #Kashmir #PakvInd: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 18 June 2017


Indian Army assaults Shopian village a second time in three nights. #Kashmir: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 17 June 2017


Indian Army assaults Shopian village a second time in three nights. #Kashmir: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 17 June 2017


Six cops were killed and NO minister turned up for wreath laying. In contrast,10 rebels appear in militant's funeral to pay homage. #Kashmir: image via Haziq Qadri @haziq_qadri, 17 June 2017



Kashmiri village women watch the body of a local rebel Nasir Wani displayed during his funeral in Haf-Shirmal village about 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, June 17, 2017. Thousands attended funerals of three rebels in Indian controlled Kashmir Saturday after they were killed in a gunbattle with government forces in the disputed region, police said.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 17 June 2017
Days of Rage

Untitled | by DanRedrup

Untitled. Day of Rage - London.: photo by Dan Redrup, 21 April 2017
 
 
GAZA - Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli security forces near Jabalia refugee camp yesterday. Photo @mohmdabed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 June 2017
 


Demonstrators demand justice for the victims of the recent deadly apartment block fire at Grenfell Tower, after marching to parliament in central London Wednesday June 21, 2017. The mass "Day of Rage" demonstration is timed to coincide with the state opening of parliament Wednesday.: photo by Matt Dunham/AP, 21 June 2017
 
foreshadowing | by zlandr

foreshadowing [Union Square, NYC]: photo by Chris Farling, 1 June 2017
 
#06 | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 21 May 2017

#06 | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 21 May 2017

#06 | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 21 May 2017

@ | by Ania Klosek

@: photo by Ania Klosek, 13 July 2014

Havana, Cuba | by Davide Albani

Havana, Cuba: photo by Davide Albani, 7 August 2016

Havana, Cuba | by Davide Albani

Havana, Cuba: photo by Davide Albani, 7 August 2016

Havana, Cuba | by Davide Albani

Havana, Cuba: photo by Davide Albani, 7 August 2016

Untitled | by DanRedrup

Untitled. Barcelona 2016.: photo by Dan Redrup, 15 June 2016

*** | by Adam Dzieciolkiewicz

*** Somewhere in northern Thailand: photo by Adam Dzieciolkewicz, 17 October 2013

*** | by Adam Dzieciolkiewicz

*** Somewhere in northern Thailand: photo by Adam Dzieciolkewicz, 17 October 2013

*** | by Adam Dzieciolkiewicz

*** Somewhere in northern Thailand: photo by Adam Dzieciolkewicz, 17 October 2013

Rapa Nui 2015 (56 of 123).jpg | by Zoltera

Rapa Nui 2015 (56 of123).jpg: photo by Zoltera, 21 June 2015

Girls and Rayan. | by tetyanabunyak

Girls and Rayan [Cardium, Calipor, Goa]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 20 January 2015

Girls and Rayan. | by tetyanabunyak

Girls and Rayan [Cardium, Calipor, Goa]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 20 January 2015
 
Girls and Rayan. | by tetyanabunyak

Girls and Rayan [Cardium, Calipor, Goa]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 20 January 2015

The Jolly Rioter | by DanRedrup

The Jolly Rioter. Roma 2015.: photo by Dan Redrup, 11 February 2015

Digging. Myanmar. | by Nic.Miles

Digging. Myanmar. Lake Inle, Myanmar, March 2015.: photo by Nic Miles, 1 May 2015

Digging. Myanmar. | by Nic.Miles

Digging. Myanmar. Lake Inle, Myanmar, March 2015.: photo by Nic Miles, 1 May 2015

Digging. Myanmar. | by Nic.Miles

Digging. Myanmar. Lake Inle, Myanmar, March 2015.: photo by Nic Miles, 1 May 2015

Construction workers - Taungyyi, Myanmar | by Guille Ibanez

Construction workers - Taungyyi, Myanmar: photo by Guille Ibanez, 19 March 2015

Winner Under Construction Observe Contest | by jopaulwallace

[Brixton, London]: photo by Jo Wallace, 1 April 2015
 
 Korce, Albania | by Mihai Ciama
 
Korce, Albania: photo by Mihai Ciama, 23 June 2017
George Seferis: Fires of St. John



Smoke from the High Park Fire fills the sky near Laporte, Colorado: photo by Marc Piscotty/Reuters, 10 June 2012

Our fate: spilled lead; our fate can’t change --
nothing’s to be done.
They spilled the lead in water under the stars, and may the fires burn.

If you stand naked before a mirror at midnight you see,
you see a man moving through the mirror’s depths
the man destined to rule your body
in loneliness and silence, the man
of loneliness and silence
and may the fires burn.

At the hour when one day ends and the next has not begun
at the hour when time is suspended
you must find the man who then and now, from the very beginning, ruled your body
you must look for him so that someone else at least
will find him, after you are dead.

It is the children who light the fires and cry out before the flames in the hot night
(Was there ever a fire that some child did not light, O Herostratus)
and throw salt on the flames to make them crackle
(How strangely the houses -- crucibles for men -- suddenly
stare at us when the flame’s reflection caresses them).

But you who knew the stone’s grace on the sea-whipped rock
the evening when stillness fell
heard from far off the human voice of loneliness and silence
inside your body
that night of St John
when all the fires went out
and you studied the ashes under the stars.


George Seferis (1900-1971): Fires of St. John, from Book of Exercises, 1940, in George Seferis: Collected Poems (Revised edition), translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, 1991

On the eve of the feast day of St John (24 June), it was customary in Seferis’ childhood village of Skala near the town of Vourla in Asia Minor – as in other Greek villages generally -- for the children to light small fires in the streets after sunset and jump over them for good luck. Among the various divinatory rituals practiced by unmarried girls on this feast day are the two mentioned in the poem: 1) The girl drops molten lead into a container filled with “silent” water (i.e. water brought secretly from a spring by a young girl or boy who is forbidden to speak to anyone on the way), and the shape the lead takes on cooling indicates the trade or profession the girl’s future husband will follow; 2) The girl undresses at midnight and stands naked before a mirror, invoking St John and asking him to reveal the man she will marry; the first name she hears on waking the next morning is that of her future husband.

Herostratus, in 346 BC, burned down the famous Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in order to make his name immortal.


-- Keeley and Sherrard



A large area of forest lies burned in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico. The Whitewater-Baldy fire, a blaze that has charred more than 453 square miles of the forest and its famed Gila Wilderness, is the largest in the state's history: photo by KC Shedden/U.S. Forest Service/Associated Press, 15 June 2012

ANDREI RUBLEV 1 (Andrey Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION | by ImagineIndia Film Festival

ANDREI RUBLEV I (Andrei Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION
: photo by ImagineIndiaFilmFestival, 13 May 2012


ANDREI RUBLEV 1 (Andrey Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION | by ImagineIndia Film Festival

ANDREI RUBLEV I (Andrei Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION
: photo by ImagineIndiaFilmFestival, 13 May 2012


ANDREI RUBLEV 1 (Andrey Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION | by ImagineIndia Film Festival

ANDREI RUBLEV I (Andrei Tarkovskiy) RUSSIAN SECTION
: photo by ImagineIndiaFilmFestival, 13 May 2012


Andrei Rublev Artist & Icon | by dou_ble_you

Andrei Rublev Artist and Icon [Tarkovsky: Andrei Rublev, 1966: Eve of St John "naked dissidents" scene]
: photo by dou_ble_you, 30 November 2008

Andrei Rublev, 1966. | by CNRYBLK

Andrei Rublev, 1966. by anti_cgi.
: photo by Canary Black, 22 October 2015

Spain San Juan Night

People take part with fire's torch during the San Juan night in the small Pyrenees village of Sahun, northern Spain, Friday, June 23, 2017. The night of San Juan, which welcomes the summer season, is an ancient tradition celebrated every year in various towns in Spain.: photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP, 23 June 2017

7 comments:

VINCENT FARNSWORTH said...

lack of comments does not mean lack of amazement at the images you always find

thank you

TC said...

Thanks, Vincent. It helps to think that's what it means.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

Αμίλητο νερό. . . . .two words, six syllables, five consonants, six vowels, two rhymes—rolling off the lips like liquid oh!

TC said...

Who does not thirst for that silent water.

Unknown said...

Safaris' Fires of St. John recalls Keats' Eve of St. Agnes, no? Distressing that it is impossible to find any coverage of Kashmir conflict by American press. If not for you work, I'd have no idea. And the recent Heptones Book of Rules post has filled my house with Rocksteady joy!

TC said...

Tom, The feast of St Johns Eve -- eve of the rites of St John The Baptist, said by St Luke to have been born six months before Jesus -- is still celebrated across much of Europe, as a sort of de facto midsummer festival. In the Iberian peninsula in particular the bonfires of San Juan still dance in the night. The Tarkovsky film Andrei Rublev (a few stills are seen here) remembers the "pagan" origins of all this. I believe the spirit of the festival still lives on in much of the continent. Keats was similarly attempting to engage an immemorial folk custom with the Eve of St Agnes, though by his time much if not all of the social meaning had been drained out of that ancient cache of lore. It had become a literary fancy, pretty much. Exactly the kind of thing JK, whose imagination was always operating several removes away from experienced reality, loved so much.

About Kashmir, quite simply, nobody wants to know or care... but, as with the Palestinians, the fate of the Kashmiris stands as a kind of historical index. Occupation, it seems, remains accepted practise, in certain places -- accepted as a necessity and a convenience, that is, by the big players in what's coming to look more and more like a rigged game.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Tom.