Heard
Marc Lynch featured on
On the Media this morning, discussing the public fear of ISIS and the media narrative of same. Liked what he said, and the fact that he snickered when Gladstone quoted certain semi-contradictory poll results. Googling him revealed that he is indeed of a Choplogic disposition. Look no further than his blog title:
Abu Aardvark.
✣
1024. I've wanted to include some German poetry in my memorization effort, figured the best starting-point's a little scrap of
Heinrich Heine:
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam,
Im Norden auf kahler Höh.
Er schläfert, mit weißer Decke
Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee.
Er träumt von einer Palme,
Die, Fern im Morgenland,
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.
 |
| Two Trees of Valinor |
Stupid simple, but so evocative. Rather like
Telperion and Laurelin, except w/ an added double-edge of grassisalwaysgreener and Einsamkeit. I just love the word Morningland. The compounds just make German so much more visual than English: Orient ... what is that? What three kings'd ever journey across an Orient? Not to mention the Near East or the Middle East. Asia's a bit better. But Orient? Too mathy and navigational. But Morgenland is different. It's both Morrowland and Dawnland. It's almost Neverland. You can see the sun start to peek over the hills before it rolls over the desert, only to lose itself again in an endless swell of twinkling stars and forevertwilight. Just that one word. The way it evokes sunshine and time and weather and space and stars and dawning and dying. I suppose this isn't nearly as apparent to a native speaker, so praise Thoth I can see it from the outside. I read somewhere that the nights aren't as clear in the Middle East as we think.
This was so short it barely felt like memorization, though. May look into some
Rilke next. Or
Goethe. I'd like to memorize a Shakesonnet or four but I couldn't decide which five to go with. Chi troppo vuole nulla stringe.
