See how they ride
so fast on their guide
dogs. They've read the braille
on the wall. The farmers wife
can not prevail
and will have to learn
what it entails
to throw her knife.
last post
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This blog was mainly about my time living in Madrid and my return to London
in 2010. I will not be updating or adding to it from March 2013.
I have started...
13 years ago
13 comments:
David, do I detect a small change in your mood? Still exploring the surreal corners of your imagination... but now moving into the symbolic. Or is it a plot development exercise?
Me? Still buried. But thanks for asking. Ah! Got some news. Discovered three islands on the Atlantic whilst procrastinating...
Don't know how it arrived in my mind, maybe thinking of something for the kids, maybe thinking an update required. Have had it in draft for a week or two. Finally felt it was ready, published, then found it had disappeared. I had to go into a hidden menu and change the date. It had dropped away to some time last week.
I have no idea what you mean about symbolic. My mind is not as intellectual as yours. I simply rattle. There are others simmering. Mrs Bart is not ready. I may change her name, but you know who she is.
You travel fast. Suggest you claim them and name them for the three ladies of your household.
trois souris aveugles...
Dear Cryptic, if I detect symbolic meaning in your poem that is because I presume that it is not a return to the orgiginal form. It is very interesting how nursery rhymes, like fairy tales, deploy cruelty, and unresolved evil as dramatic devices. As a child I used to entertain myself, with other children by evoking gory images, no problem. But as a mother of toddlers, I found the lyrics to some of those songs difficult to sing lovingly, reassuringly, and especially not at bedtime ... if you get my drift. But you take it to another level. Not only are the mice still blind (no happy end despite dramatic possibilities of sight restoration medical technology) but the wall with its writing (symbolic, surely, you can see that) is in braille (a risque joke?) AND the farmer's wife (in this country, a rather well-to-do occupation, even if hard work [see the Archers]) walks around public spaces carrying a knife.... that is illegal. That is indeed a contemporary version of the medieval sleeping pill for babes; a scary story topped up with 15 minutes sucking on a cloth dipped in whisky...
So if I suggest it is symbolic, that is because I do not believe for one minute that you mean any of it.
Ok, I know: this is post-modern irony.... silly me.
I am ignorant of the labels you employ here, as I was of the feminism one. I am sadly lacking in several areas of my education, but I suspect that we are all selective in these matters.
Of couse I am nt serious about this, I am usually joking in these things, like the limericks.
Same here, joke it is. As you know.
Thank you Annie, for the translation. Is there an equivalent version of the original in French?
I'll research that
Trois souris aveugles. Trois souris aveugles.
Regarde comme elles courent. Regarde comme elles courent.
Elles ont toutes couru après la femme du fermier.
Elle leur a coupé la queue avec un couteau.
Avez vous vu quelque chose de pareil dans votre vie.
Comme trois souris aveugles.
this I got from frech wikipedia. they say that the rhyme dates back to the 16th century when Queen Mary of england had three protestant bishops executed, don't know if that is true, but in that case it would be british, I dont recall any french rhyme that resembles it but i am not an authority
Thanks, Annie. Most enlightening. Well, the rhyme isn't a rhyme in the French, so perhaps it was a translation of the original English. I have retranslated it using a translator widget, to see how accurate the translator is:
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
Look at as they run. Look at as they run.
They ran all after the woman of the farmer.
She cut the tail with a knife to them.
Have considering something of similar in your life.
The computer translator had a go the other way, and produced this:
Trois souris aveugles. Trois souris aveugles.
Voyez comment elles exécutent. Voyez comment elles exécutent.
Elles toutes ont exécuté après l'épouse du fermier
Qui a découpé leurs queues avec un couteau de découpage
Avez-vous jamais vu une telle chose dans votre vie
Comme trois souris aveugles?
I would be grateful for your comments on this, Annie.
The same computer translated what it had just produced this way:
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they carry out. See how they carry out.
They all carried out after the wife of the farmer
Who cut out their tails with a punching tool
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
Like three blind mice?
Which is at least two accurate lines.
I see now that the translator cannot manage more than five lines at a time, which is why the last line of the first translation was missing.
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