tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1555179758155553400..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Guillaume Apollinaire: La Jolie Rousse (The Pretty Redhead)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61118230669412966242013-04-27T07:00:03.713-07:002013-04-27T07:00:03.713-07:00Merci beaucoup, you two!
A rose by any other name...Merci beaucoup, you two!<br /><br />A rose by any other name...<br /><br />Of course a thing may be said to be redolent of any other thing which has an odor.<br /><br />Garlic, for example.<br /><br />Or by extension of any other thing.<br /><br />Shakespeare, for example.<br /><br />Or a smiley face, certainly.<br /><br />But after all these years in quest of the elusive essence of red, in posts like <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/rojo-red-garland.html" rel="nofollow">this one</a>, I don't think I've ever completely captured it.<br /><br />The quest continues...TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76221745762950180062013-04-26T17:55:19.855-07:002013-04-26T17:55:19.855-07:00Red must be the King of all colours. One could spe...Red must be the King of all colours. One could spend a lifetime.... <br />A proper mensch :-)) I need a smiley now, shame on me. <br />The weatherman knew all about the Death of the Poet.<br />Apparently.Marie Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07787850063283960703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-27283673444458155502013-04-26T17:41:06.963-07:002013-04-26T17:41:06.963-07:00A great pleasure to read/view this collective medi...A great pleasure to read/view this collective meditation on red. Perhaps the word red-olence applies?De Villo Sloanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483716065100937361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-88350646010582618642013-04-26T05:13:26.912-07:002013-04-26T05:13:26.912-07:00By the by, and well, then, as we're here... Yo...By the by, and well, then, as we're here... You never know what you'll learn (?) on the internet. I'd been reading Apollinaire's poetry for so long I hadn't even noticed I was an authority on the subject!<br /><br />I may be the first, or last, to know this fact.<br /><br />But would Google Books tell a lie?<br /><br /><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Guillaume_Apollinaire_ist_tot.html?id=dM2TmQEACAAJ" rel="nofollow">Guillaume Apollinaire ist Tot: März bei Zweitausendeins, 1979</a><br /><br />(It's always a great relief not to have seen books one is accused of having written... who, me? Not guilty, Your Honour!)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-14009145433673051012013-04-26T04:57:59.155-07:002013-04-26T04:57:59.155-07:00Thinking about this post, I've traveled again ...Thinking about this post, I've traveled again down the corridors of memory back to one of my favourite films, Kieslowski's Rouge (from the Trois Couleurs trilogy).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6zeBr258OE" rel="nofollow">Kieslowski: Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)</a><br /><br />In this wonderful film, colour is a powerful thematic element, a kind of chord that holds the work together and gives it a depth that has to do, I think, with engaging the subconscious -- red is a "sign", as Kieslowski would have said, pervading the work, and lending it an overarching meaning that runs beneath, and at times even counter to, the narrative direction. It is a film about life and death, and the sustaining and significant force of life, in it, has at least as much to do with the colour, which provides the texture and the fabric, as with the story.<br /><br />Red is such a life-expressive colour, seeing it in photographic images -- particularly in the old Kodachrome -- is always inspiring. Even the most austere of artists have not been able to resist its temptations.<br /><br />I think for example of Walker Evans, who otherwise worked almost exclusively in the severity and austerity of the domain of black and white: see e.g. the second image <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/walter-benjamin-ariadnes-red-thread.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br /><br />The Devil has always been dangerously red because red is the colour of life, that dangerous thing...<br /><br />Perhaps, in the language of colours, red might represent all those mysteries gestured toward in the final stanza, those "things that you would not let me say" which could not be expressed in any discursive language.<br /><br />Even a proper mensch needs pity when floored by such beauty...<br /><br />Ripe Tomato<br />fresh blood spilt<br />A primary Blush, but<br />no sign of anger<br />no sign of shame...<br />An emotionally charged Hue<br />way off the spectrum<br />Barbaric Splashes?<br /><br />One can't suppress this wild surge of the barbarism which is so close to the heart of the making of art, indeed of the experience of art itself.<br /><br />"But the lifeline is there, in the shape of red... a match made in heaven!"<br /><br />A Redhead match, naturellement.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70144449410025298832013-04-25T19:40:18.397-07:002013-04-25T19:40:18.397-07:00Ripe Tomato
fresh blood spilt
A primary Blush, but...Ripe Tomato<br />fresh blood spilt<br />A primary Blush, but<br />no sign of anger<br />no sign of shame<br />The Wound is stitched<br />with Satin Ribbons<br />It doesn't<br />Hurt<br />An emotionally charged Hue<br />way off the spectrum<br />Barbaric Splashes?<br />Maybe then you'd know<br />how much I like youMarie Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07787850063283960703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-4837647462445555602013-04-25T15:58:07.118-07:002013-04-25T15:58:07.118-07:00Apollinaire and the Redhead girl, a match made in ...Apollinaire and the Redhead girl, a match made in heaven! Beautiful poem, and photo. One can sense the poet's desire to let it all out, to let all the words in him out, all the love and pain he has felt in his entire life. And then having to hold back. Because it's impossible. But the lifeline is there, in the shape of red.<br />I grew very fond of red. <br />And that poem by Neruda is giving me chills. The good ones.Marie Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07787850063283960703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-90049434312699022382013-04-25T12:59:08.053-07:002013-04-25T12:59:08.053-07:00I love the switch in the last stanza. Even a prope...I love the switch in the last stanza. Even a proper mensch needs pity when floored by such beauty.<br /><br />That spark is something too.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-31570179072825220982013-04-25T09:48:16.881-07:002013-04-25T09:48:16.881-07:00Sandra, thanks very much for that!
For those who ...Sandra, thanks very much for that!<br /><br />For those who don't have Spanish, a couple of translations:<br /><br />Neruda: Sonnet XVII (from 100 Love Sonnets, 1960)<br /><br />I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, <br />or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: <br />I love you as one loves certain obscure things, <br />secretly, between the shadow and the soul<br /><br />I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries <br />the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, <br />and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose <br />from the earth lives dimly in my body<br /><br />I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, <br />I love you directly without problems or pride:<br />I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love<br /><br />except in this form in which I am not nor are you,<br />so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, <br />so close that your eyes close with my dreams.<br /><br />(translation by Mark Eisner)<br /><br />__<br /> <br />I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz<br />or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:<br />I love you as certain dark things are loved,<br />secretly, between the shadow and the soul.<br /> <br />I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries<br />hidden within itself the light of those flowers,<br />and thanks to your love, darkly in my body<br />lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.<br /> <br />I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,<br />I love you simply, without problems or pride:<br />I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving<br /> <br />but this, in which there is no I or you,<br />so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,<br />so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close<br /><br />(translation by Stephen Tapscott)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-9294853374862946062013-04-25T09:31:39.424-07:002013-04-25T09:31:39.424-07:00Neruda was inspired by the redish hair of Matilde ...Neruda was inspired by the redish hair of Matilde Urrutia...<br /><br />Me falta tiempo para celebrar tus cabellos.<br /><br />Uno por uno debo contarlos y alabarlos:<br />otros amantes quieren vivir con ciertos ojos,<br />yo sólo quiero ser tu peluquero.<br /><br />En Italia te bautizaron Medusa<br />por la encrespada y alta luz de tu cabellera.<br />Yo te llamo chascona mía y enmarañada:<br />mi corazón conoce las puertas de tu pelo.<br /><br />Cuando tú te extravíes en tus propios cabellos,<br />no me olvides, acuérdate que te amo,<br />no me dejes perdido ir sin tu cabellera.<br /><br /><br />por el mundo sombrío de todos los caminos <br />que sólo tiene sombra, transitorios dolores, <br />hasta que el sol sube a la torre de tu pelo.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-42945531839146997912013-04-25T09:20:42.156-07:002013-04-25T09:20:42.156-07:00Nin,
Talking of la bouche de Dieu, I have it stra...Nin,<br /><br />Talking of la bouche de Dieu, I have it straight from that poor tired old horse's mouth (mainline revelation, I believe this is) that after these many years of lighting various small fires all round the Bush, Redheads are to be retired and replaced by a comparable but far less inflammatory product.<br /><br />In brief, it's as the far-sighted manufacturers say, <a href="http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/media/news/we-would-have-be-complete-dickheads" rel="nofollow">"We would have to be complete dickheads..."</a><br /><br />There is a growing treasury of fabulous lore regarding this remarkable pyro-substitute. E.g., an amusing bit of verbatim testimony:<br /><br />Great Australian Dickhead #1 <br /><br />A Queensland businessman (or he may have been Tasmanian) had purchased a new Paradise Motor Home (Australian made, of course) and was driving it along the freeway towards Brisbane. As it was his first vehicle that included a cruise control, he decided to turn on the cruise control and go to the back of the cabin to make a cup of coffee. While making [sic] his cup of coffee, -- for some strange reason -- the vehicle failed to take the bend, ran off the road and sustained quite considerable damage. The businessman then decided to sue Paradise for the damage that had been done to the vehicle, making him one of the Great Australian Dickheads of all time.<br /><br />Col Maclean, the owner of Paradise Motor Homes, said, "In future we will be putting a sticker on our Paradise Motor Homes which says, 'when cruise control is in operation, the driver must remain at the wheel!"TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-51955861852919689602013-04-25T08:54:39.242-07:002013-04-25T08:54:39.242-07:00(Those redheads have all the fun...)(<a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/roberto-bolano-redhead.html" rel="nofollow">Those redheads have all the fun...)</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61984446083909324252013-04-25T08:42:11.414-07:002013-04-25T08:42:11.414-07:00Those tears
de La Rousse.
Nous voulons explo...Those tears <br />de La Rousse. <br /><br />Nous voulons explorer la bonté contrée énorme où tout se tait<br /><br />Vous dont la bouche est faite à l'image de celle de Dieu . . .<br /><br />Très belle! <br />Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48507696534600681282013-04-25T05:44:45.877-07:002013-04-25T05:44:45.877-07:00Ignited by this spark...Ignited by <a href="http://mariesuitcase.blogspot.com/2013/04/redheads.html" rel="nofollow">this spark</a>...TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com