Listen to the poem here Two moods of darkness Darkness has its swings of mood. It also has long arms and countless fingers. Those nights your worries start to make the floorboards creak; first one, then several, then all (and if you have no floorboards they bring their own) then darkness slowly tries to... Continue Reading →
Halfpenny thoughts no.5 – Ulysses and the road home
Every time I board an Alitalia plane to fly to Rome, where I live, I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to name the in-flight magazine after Ulysses, a person who took all of ten years to make it home.
But I have No. 5
At the conferences I work at as a simultaneous interpreter, the audience can listen to a translation in one of the available languages through headphones connected to a receiver. The receiver has a volume control and a channel selection system. Sometimes, people who are not used to these things find them hard to use. They... Continue Reading →
Halfpenny thoughts no. 4 – Le quatorze Laurel
One of the best things of the French Revolution, in my opinion, are the beautiful new names which were assigned to the months of the year. I especially like misty Brumaire, frosty Frimaire and fruity Fructidor. Rainy Pluviôse is quite nice too. Compare our tired names, particularly September, October, November and December. These just mean... Continue Reading →
Vinylia – The Artificial Language of Dervish
Here is a link to Chapter 7 of my book Vinylia. The chapter is mostly about an artificial language called Dervish and the attempts of a woman called Confucia Wang to bring it under control. Dervish is invented in order to overcome the unavoidable misunderstandings and ambiguities in drafting treaties and conventions using natural languages... Continue Reading →
The Cats will know – Pavese – translation
(My translation of Cesare Pavese's poem "The Cats will know") The Cats will know (Cesare Pavese) Again the rain will fall on your sweet paving stones, a gentle rain just like a breath or like a footfall. Again the breeze, the dawn, will lightly bloom, as underneath your step when you return. Among... Continue Reading →
Being led up the juice can path
Many years ago I spent several weeks in the Sahara desert. One part of the trip was a journey from Tamanrasset to the oasis of Djanet. About seven hundred kilometres as I recall. There was no road then, just pistes and only four or five places along the route where one could get water. One... Continue Reading →
People who believe in the death penalty
I'm not saying they're evil but they're definitely medi-eval.
Evening (Der Abend) by Rainer Maria Rilke – translation
Evening The evening slowly dons the changing clothes a rim of ancient trees holds out for it; and as you watch, before you two lands separate, one travelling heavenwards and one which falls; and leave you fully part of neither one, not quite so darkly silent as the house, not quite so surely summoning eternity... Continue Reading →
New Rome bus routes
This is the third time this has happened to me. I open the Rome bus app (Roma Bus), click on the tab to check the route of a bus (it was the 32 this time) and a screen appears with a map of a large part of North-West Africa. Are there secret bus routes running... Continue Reading →