Quirky World: Liens / Links

It has been more than a year since Tim Hetherington passed away in Libya, yet it seems I can't get over it every time I watch him talk about his job, his way of looking at the world, at life. It feels like he would have helped us make more sense of the mess we're witnessing, enacting, creating.

Here's a tribute paid by his friend Sebastian Junger at the Sundance Film Festival: Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington.

Here is the BBC article on the documentary and here is the presentation video of The Genius of Tim Hetherington (which I had already posted a little after Tim's death).

Tim, rest in peace while Libya just can't.

Sunday 13 January 2013

World's oldest woman, Koto Okubo, dies at age 115 in Japan | The Japan Times Online

Sunday 6 January 2013

Finding Gunnar Ekelöf

I have "discovered" this Swedish poet thanks to my Swedish friends who have highly recommended my reading his oeuvre. I looked up for translations of his poems. First thing which struck me was his voice: I immediately heard it. I have been told he was a niche, a special poet in the pantheon. Yet, sadly, I couldn't lay my hands on any book by him in English. There was only one edition available in French, found in only one bookshop in Stockholm. How disappointing not to be able to read in Swedish.

Then I scoured the Internet and a few things have turned up.

Poetik

Det är till tystnaden du skall lyssna

tystnaden bakom apostroferingar, allusioner

tystnaden i retoriken

eller i det så kallade formellt fulländade

Detta är sökandet efter ett meningslöst

i det meningsfulla

och omvänt

Och allt vad jag så konstfullt söker dikta

är kontrastvis någonting konstlöst

och hela fyllnaden tom

Vad jag har skrivit

är skrivet mellan raderna

Poetics

It is the silence you’re to listen to

the silence behind quotation marks, allusions

the silence in the rhetoric

or in the so-called formally accomplished

This is the search for what’s meaningless

in the meaningful

and vice versa

And all that I artfully seek to compose

is by way of contrast something artless

and the whole fullness empty

What I have written

is written between the lines

Kinesisk broderi

En eldfågels bo är hjärtat

byggt med kvistar av ådror

fodrat med lågor. Men fågeln

ruvar där i en ännu högre

värme. Från dess bröst och sidor

tycks lågorna vika. Orörd

vilar den på det osynliga ägget

med vingarna fläktande, stjärtens fjädrar

hängande ut över bokanten. Eller den fladdrar

ett ögonblick upp som för att hämta

tankars och bilders insekt, försvinnande

i luftens siden så snart den lyftat

åter synlig först då den åter vilar

i lågorna, slätande sina fjädrar med näbbet.

Chinese embroidery

A firebird’s nest is the heart

built with twigs of veins

nourished with flames. But the bird

broods there in an even greater

heat. From its breast and sides

the flames seem to fall back. Untouched

it rests on the invisible egg

its wings fanning, its tail-feathers

hanging over the nest’s edge. Or it flutters

up for an instant as if to fetch

an insect of thoughts and images, disappearing

into the silk of the air as soon as it has lifted

only visible again when it once more rests

in the flames, smoothing its feathers with its beak.

Both are re-blogged from this site. Then there's also this video of "I do best alone at night":

And finally these two poems:

Yes, I long for home,
Homeless I long for home,
Home to where love is, the one, the good,
Home to my real home!
That home is bright -
In my mind I open the door,
See everything awaiting me there.

(from 'One after one')

A desolate wind from the city
and nearer, further
the bell's burden, swinging fifths
- it's burning! it's burning! -
of the dread march:
We lived - just then!
We live now not at all,
we shall live - for the firs time!
(from 'Marche funèbre' in Mölna Elegy, 1960)

Both taken from his biography. It's quite long, but worth it. These two poems are fantastic ones - he did put his finger right on the spot.

This last link will direct you to nine poems translated into various languages, taken from various collections spanning 35 years. Simply wonderful.

Problem is: I couldn't find anything else! Now I have to appeal to anyone who knows where copies of his poems can be gotten...please contact me!

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Israeli dig uncovers ancient Judaean temple

AFP.com

Wednesday 19 December 2012

S Korea elects first woman president ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Friday 14 December 2012

Maurice Herzog just died

AFP.com

He paid for the glory [of climbing the Annapurna] in the form of several fingers and toes that had to be amputated because of frostbite.

"You can see what I have less of, but I feel what I have more of and it is incomparably greater," he later observed.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Ten Commandments go digital - Research - University of Cambridge

Tuesday 4 December 2012

What is the airspeed velocity of a raindrop?

A very interesting article on fossil raindrops.

Friday 30 November 2012

Huge Saturn vortex swirls in stunning NASA photos | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Authentic? New Gospel? Wife? Female disciple?

Pretty interesting article on Jesus speaking about his wife...now let's see what the experts will say on the matter. Too bad the best bit is cut off.

Friday 7 September 2012

Serment d'Hippocrate

" Je jure par Apollon, médecin, par Esculape, par Hygée et Panacée, par tous les dieux et toutes les déesses, les prenant à témoin que je remplirai, suivant mes forces et mes capacités, le serment et l'engagement suivants : je mettrai mon maître de médecine au même rang que les auteurs de mes jours, je partagerai avec lui mon avoir et, le cas échéant, je pourvoirai à ses besoins ; je tiendrai ses enfants pour des frères, et s'ils désirent apprendre la médecine, je la leur enseignerai sans salaire ni engagement. Je ferai part des préceptes, des leçons orales et du reste de l'enseignement à mes fils, à ceux de mon maître et aux disciples liés par engagement et un serment suivant la loi médicale, mais à nul autre.

Je dirigerai le régime des malades à leur avantage, suivant mes forces et mon jugement, et je m'abstiendrai de tout mal et de toute injustice. Je ne remettrai à personne du poison, si on m'en demande, ni ne prendrai l'initiative d'une pareille suggestion; semblablement, je ne remettrai à aucune femme un pessaire abortif. Je passerai ma vie et j'exercerai mon art dans l'innocence et la pureté. Je ne pratiquerai pas l'opération de la taille, je la laisserai aux gens qui s'en occupent . Dans quelques maisons que je rentre, j'y entrerai pour l'utilité des malades, me préservant de tout méfait volontaire et corrupteur, et surtout de la séduction des femmes et des garçons, libres ou esclaves. Quoique je voie ou entende dans la société pendant l'exercice ou même hors de l'exercice de ma profession, je tairai ce qui n'a jamais besoin d'être divulgué, regardant la discrétion comme un devoir en pareil cas.

Si je remplis ce serment sans l'enfreindre, qu'il me soit donné de jouir heureusement de la vie et de ma profession, hororé à jamais des hommes. Si je le viole et que je me parjure, puis-je avoir un sort contraire."

Source