An Inquiry into the Color White / Eine Untersuchung zur Farbe Weiß / Una investigación sobre el color blanco

 

 
Scroll down until you can read again.
Fahren sie hinunter bis zum Schluß, wo man wieder lesen kann.
Baja hasta el final donde puedes volver a leer.

You are probably wondering why I am writing about the color white. Well, at first you can't read anything, because I'm going to publish the text white on white. You first have to make the text legible. And that is a task that almost always has to be mastered: making a text legible. A medieval text contains many ligatures, a handwritten text has special features, a text by Arno Schmidt or James Joyce can evade immediate decipherment, and so on. Modern technology makes it possible to hide texts without deleting them. So they are easier to read than the text that is hidden under a palipsest or the oil painting over which another has been painted.

Maybe I'm writing about the color white - white on white, because I saw a white on white tattoo [1].

Fog and frost
Up in the mountains
White on white

On the other hand, I am currently reading about the exhibition "Terence Koh: 1980-2008 Love for Eternity" because I like to read texts in Castellano / Spanish, especially when I also have an English translation (or vice versa in this case) so that I can compare which text I like better. White has been the leading feature of this exhibition.

Or it is the old SF film "THX 1138" [3]. Robert Duvall plays THX 1138, some scenes are set against a white background, almost everything is white. White as the color of loneliness. The white in which one cannot hide. And the guards appear as figures dressed in black. Contrasts also work better on black and white pictures, which is why I also used monochromatic photography.

Water cascades
Running over black basalt
The eagles circle

I have to admit that for me blackness and darkness have more appeal. So I like better Prof Abdul Nachtigaller [4] than Snow White.

Black Paradox

What could become
Of these dark days
Which pass by so sluggishly
Overcast
Drizzle
Tree stumps in black mirrors
And the colorful paintings of the children
Appear only black

Then why brings
Paint it black
So much sunshine?

Black rather expresses abundance, is impenetrable, dense and warm. We associate black with grief and depression. But you can hide yourself well in black, which is why it is also a color of hope.

White expresses emptiness. White noise is uncomfortable. White can be cold, repellent, sterile. However, the peace flag and peace dove are white. The bride's dress is also white [5].

Sie fragen sich wahrscheinlich, warum ich etwas über die Farbe Weiß schreibe. Nun, zunächst können Sie überhaupt nichts lesen, da ich den Text Weiß auf Weiß veröffentlichen werde. Sie müssen sich den Text erst einmal lesbar machen. Und das ist eine Aufgabe, die fast immer zu bewältigen ist: einen Text lesbar machen. Ein mittelaterlicher Text beinhaltet viele Ligaturen, ein handgeschriebener Text hat Besonderheiten, ein Text von Arno schmidt oder James Joyce kann sich auch der sofortigen Entzifferung entziehen, und so weiter. Die moderne Technik macht es möglich, Texte zu verbergen, ohne sie löschen. Sie sind also einfacher lesbar zu machen als der Text, der unter einem Palipsest verborgen ist oder das Ölgemälde, über das ein anderes gemalt wurde.

Vielleicht schreibe ich über die Farbe Weiß – Weiß auf Weiß, weil ich eine Tätowierung Weiß auf Weiß gesehen habe [1].

Nebel und Frost
Oben in den Bergen
Weiß auf Weiß

Andererseits lese ich gerade über die Ausstellung „Terence Koh: 1980-2008 Love for Eternity“, weil ich gerne Texte auf Castellano/Spanisch lese, insbesondere, wenn ich auch noch eine englische Übersetzung habe (bzw. umgekehrt in diesem Fall), so daß ich vergleichen kann, welcher Text mir besser gefällt. Weiß ist das führende Merkmal dieser Ausstellung gewesen.

Oder es ist der alte SF-Film „THX 1138“ [3]. Robert Duvall spielt THX 1138, manche Szenen spielen vor einem weißen Hintergrund, fast alles ist weiß. Weiß als Farbe der Einsamkeit. Das Weiß, in dem man sich nicht verstecken kann. Und die Wächter tauchen als schwarz gekleidete Gestalten auf. Kontraste wirken auch auf Schwarz-Weiß-Bildern besser, weshalb ich auch die monochromatische Fotografie gepflegt habe.

Wasserkaskaden
Über schwarzen Stein laufend
DieAdler kreisen

Ich muss zugeben, daß ich mehr der Schwärze, der Dunkelheit zuspreche. Also Prof Abdul Nachtigaller [4] sagt mir mehr zu als Schneewittchen.

Schwarzes Paradox

Was könnte werden
Aus diesen dunklen Tagen
Die so träge vorübergehen
Bedeckt
Nieselregen
Baumstümpfe in schwarzen Spiegeln
Und die bunten Bilder der Kinder
Erscheinen nur schwarz

Warum bringt dann
Paint it black
So viel Sonnenschein?

Schwarz drückt eher Fülle aus, ist undurchdringlich, dicht und warm. Wir verbinden mit Schwarz Trauer und Depression. Aber im Schwarz kann man sich auch gut verstecken, deshalb ist es auch eine Farbe der Hoffnung.

Weiß drückt Leere aus. White noise ist unangenehm. Weiß kann kalt, abweisend, steril sein. Allerdings sind Friedensflagge und Friedenstaube weiß. Auch das Kleid der Braut ist weiß [5].

Probablemente se esté preguntando por qué estoy escribiendo sobre el color blanco. Bueno, al principio no se puede leer nada, porque voy a publicar el texto blanco sobre blanco. Primero tienes que hacer que el texto sea legible. Y esa es una tarea que casi siempre hay que dominar: hacer legible un texto. Un texto medieval contiene muchas ligaduras, un texto escrito a mano tiene características especiales, un texto de Arno Schmidt o James Joyce puede evadir el desciframiento inmediato, etc. La tecnología moderna permite ocultar textos sin eliminarlos. Por tanto, son más fáciles de leer que el texto que se esconde debajo de un palipsest o el óleo sobre el que se ha pintado otro.

Quizás estoy escribiendo sobre el color blanco - blanco sobre blanco porque vi un tatuaje de blanco sobre blanco [1].

Niebla y escarcha
En las montañas
Blanco sobre blanco

Por otro lado, actualmente estoy leyendo sobre la exposición "Terence Koh: 1980-2008 Love for Eternity" porque me gusta leer textos en castellano / español, sobre todo cuando también tengo una traducción al inglés (o viceversa en esto caso) para que puedo comparar qué texto me gusta más. El blanco ha sido el protagonista de esta exposición.

O es la vieja película SF "THX 1138" [3]. Robert Duvall toca THX 1138, algunas escenas están sobre un fondo blanco, casi todo es blanco. Blanco como el color de la soledad. El blanco en el que no se puede esconder. Y los guardias aparecen como figuras vestidas de negro. Los contrastes también funcionan mejor en fotografías en blanco y negro, por lo que también utilicé fotografía monocromática.

Cascadas de agua
Corriendo sobre basalto negro
Las águilas circulan

Debo admitir que hablo más de negrura, de oscuridad. Así que le agrado más al profesor Abdul Nachtigaller [4] que a Blancanieves.

Paradoja negra

Que podria llegar a ser
De estos dias oscuros
Que avanzan tan lentamente
Nublado
Llovizna
Tocones de árboles en espejos negros
Y las coloridas pinturas de los niños
Aparecen solo negros

Entonces, ¿por qué trae
Paint it black
Tanto sol?

El negro expresa más bien abundancia, es impenetrable, denso y cálido. Asociamos el negro con el dolor y la depresión. Pero puedes esconderte bien de negro, por eso también es un color de esperanza.

El blanco expresa vacío. El ruido blanco es incómodo. El blanco puede ser frío, repelente, estéril. Sin embargo, la bandera de la paz y la paloma de la paz son blancas. El vestido de la novia también es blanco [5].

If you mark the text as if to be copied, then it should become visible.
Wenn Sie den Text wie zum Kopieren markieren, dann sollte er sichtbar werden.
Si marca el texto como si fuera a copiar, entonces debería ser visible. 

Links & Annotations / Enlaces y anotaciones:
[1] https://brightside.me/creativity-art/7-things-you-need-to-know-before-getting-a-white-tattoo-798203/ Though one should rather look at the tattoo of an albino. It wouldn't work on me as I am quite yellow because of the lot of caroteen, lycopins, and tocotrienes I am eating. / Allerdings sollte man sich eher das Tattoo eines Albinos anschauen. Es würde bei mir nicht funktionieren, da ich wegen der Menge an Carotin, Lycopinen und Tocotrienen, die ich esse, ziemlich gelb bin. / Aunque uno debería mirar el tatuaje de un albino . No funcionaría en mí porque soy bastante amarillo debido a la gran cantidad de carotenos, licopinas y tocotrienos que estoy comiendo.
[2] Bill Arning, Agustín Pérez Rubio: Terence Koh: 1980-2008 Love for Eternity. Catalogue of the Exhibition in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC).  Hatje Cantz Verlag 2009. ISBN: 9783775723084
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138 „THX 1138 is a 1971 American social science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his feature film directorial debut.“ Robert Duvall as THX 1138: / „THX 1138 ist ein amerikanischer gesellschaftskritischer Science-Fiction-Film aus dem Jahr 1971, bei dem George Lucas in seinem Spielfilm-Regiedebüt Regie führte.“ Robert Duvall als THX 1138: / "THX 1138 es una película de ciencia ficción social estadounidense de 1971 dirigida por George Lucas en su debut como director de largometraje". Robert Duvall como THX 1138:  https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/sites/sbs.com.au.film/files/styles/full/public/thx1138_minimalist_room.gif?itok=iwmdaeg7&mtime=1502079852
[4] https://zamonien.fandom.com/de/wiki/Prof._Dr._Abdul_Nachtigaller Motto: "Knowledge is night!" / Motto: „Wissen ist Nacht!“ / Lema: "¡El conocimiento es noche!" (Macht – power, poder)  http://www.nachtigaeller.de/Nachtigaller_e.html
[5] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2014/11/white-wedding-in-central-asia.html

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On Learning a Foreign Language

I've just gone through some notes of mine concerning how to acquire a foreign language. It isn't a kind of linguistic school, which I want to present, just some ideas. Maybe something like an old rutter, which may show how someone shipped from A to B, but still has lots of unanswered questions.

One might ask: why learn a foreign language? Why learn a dead language? Why not use a modern translating tool?

Google has Google Translator, which is quite helpful. We used it, when we tried to rent a car in Arkhangelsk [1]. While waiting for pregnant Larissa, Alexej hat the idea to translate some sentences from Russian into English, and we used the PC to do so the other way round, but still talking to Larissa was much better.

Let's try Tang poetry. If you type in this line:
牛渚西江夜，青天無片雲. [2]
You get:
Niuzhuxijiang night, blue sky without clouds.
And I have to admit that we didn't get far. One has to know that 牛渚 (Niuzhu) is an old place name, the name of a mountain or better a hill. 西江 (xijiang) means the westbank of the Yangtze River [correct: Chang Jiang 长江). The second part is correct.
So a readable translation could be:
Spending the night at the westbank near Mount Niuzhu, the blue sky is without a cloud.
So, internet translators are a two edged sword – don't cut yourself.

What reasons might there be? I have collected a few:

• just for the fun of it
• to talk to people in a foreign country (vacation, work, studies)
• to read texts
• to write texts
• to listen to the radio
• to watch TV or movies
• to have conversations on the phone
• to twitter
• and more

Each reason involves other requirements to your approach. Maybe you plan to have a guided tour through Italy, then relax, just learn a few words and that's it. Don't use books that try to teach you Italian in a hurry, because you'll fail. Try to learn only the very basic words. I have written several very basic guides, try the Italian one [3]. If you travel on your own, you might wish to expand your knowledge of Italian in our example. I have started to learn some Italian half a year ago, before I went to Italy. I have listened to CDs with vocabulary and radio broadcasts in Italian (Radio Colonia* is based in Cologne, my hometown, which is said to be Italy's most northern city, and has half an hour of news and interviews in the evening on five days of the week. And I try to read a page of a monthly paper each day. It isn't as difficult as you think. O.K. I am cheating as I have learned Latin, French and Spanish before, but I'll show you that you know more than you imagine.

Even if you haven't learned a foreign language before you know some words that are nearly the same in other languages. These might act a lighthouses in the darkness of a foreign text.

Radio -: it's the same in lots of languages; it doesn't surprise that Dutch, German, Yiddish use radio as well, but it's the same in Hungarian, Turkish, and Indonesian.

Industry -: not as many languages as with radio, but you find a dozen of common languages, which are written with letters, which includes cyrillic, индустрия – is Russian and pronounced industriya. So, don't panic if you see a cyrillic text. Before I learned some Russian, I chanced upon a medical report of a patient. My colleague said: „But we cannot read it, it's in Russian“. But knowing the medical terminology and the Greek letters did the trick. Of course I could not read all, but the part that told us, that they had found a gastic ulcer by means of a fiberoptic examination. So, be confident and try!

Coffee -: have you been to a café? Yes, café also means coffie as koffie, Kaffee, kávé, kahvé, or kopi, which is Indonesian, a loan word from the Dutch koffie. Indonesian is quite interesting concerning loan words. Ambulan is the word for ambulance, not difficult, isn't it. Apotik is pharmacy, which was derived from apotheek (Dutch, German has Apotheke). Grape in Indonesian is anggur. Yes, great, but I happen to know that it's anguur in Hindi and angur in Farsi; and I looked this up right now: it's also angur in Bengali and the Thai word is close to „angun“. Kafsigar is a loan word from Hindi kafsh-gar meaning shoe seller, whereas the variant kapsigar has been borrowed from kapasgar, Farsi for shoemaker [4]. O.K. I stop before I'll get carried away.

When I had been working, I noticed that I could not find the time to concentrate on whole lessons of a language text book. So I decided to do it with a low impact approach, which means in principle achieve more with doing less, which come close to: 「逐二兔不得一兔」孔子 [5]:

• going through vocabulary cards
• twitter, also reading foreign language tweets
• reading a page or an article in a foreign languge
• listen to the radio – nearly without limit on internet
• you might watch TV in a foreign language – I eschew TV (as lofty as said), which I did long ago as I have watched soap operas in Taiwan, BTW it's a good idea, you hear only slightly different variations of the same dialogue every second evening (哎，我們該怎麼辦？) [6]
• I listen to CDs while driving, not only vocabulary but also songs in foreign languages

It is the little by little approach. You train better running 6 km per day than 42 km once a week.

Have more fun during your travels. Learn the very basic words.

I learned quite a lot after having read „The Word Brain“ [7]. I agree that learning languages isn't easy, it needs some discipline and perseverance, but still it should be fun.
Get started!

Links and Annotations:
[1] http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-renting-car-in-arkhangelsk.html
[2] It's the first line of the poem 夜泊牛渚懷古 by Li Bo/Bai (李白), which could be translated as „Nostalgic Thought from a night-mooring neat Mount Niuzhu“.
[3] The Very Basic Guide to Italian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-italian.html
[4] Russell Jones (general ed.), C.D. Grijns, J.W. de Vries (eds), Loan-words in Indonesian and Malay. Compiled by the Indonesian Etymological Project. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2007, xxxix + 360 pp., map, incl. DVD with Amoy dictionary and supplement.
[5] "The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither" ~~ Confucius
[6] Ah, what should we do?
[7] The Word Brain - A short guide to fast language learning, written by Bernd Sebastian Kamps. The homepage is under reconstruction, please google „The Word Brain“ later.
[8] If ever you want to read a book, which enlightens about learning Japanese, here it is:
Jack Seward: Japanese in Action. An Unorthodox Approach to the Spoken Language and the People Who Speak It. Weatherhill Inc; Revised, Subsequent Edition (1. Oktober 1983). ISBN: ‎ 0834800330. 
 
* The name of Radio Colonia has been changed to Cosmo Italiano recently - and regrettably. (01.02.2022)

Links for Very Basic Language Guides:
The Very Basic Guide to Catalan  http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-catalan.html
The Very Basic Guide to German
http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2017/02/the-very-basic-guide-to-german.html
The Very Basic Guide to Esperanto http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2017/02/the-very-basic-guide-to-esperanto.html
The Very Basic Guide to Yiddish http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2016/12/the-very-basic-guide-to-yiddish.html
The Very Basic Guide to Portuguese http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-portuguese.html
The Very Basic Guide to Italian  http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-italian.html
The Very Basic Guide to Afrikaans http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/04/the-very-basic-guide-to-afrikaans.html
The Very Basic Guide to Turkmenian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-languages-of.html
The Very Basic Guide to French http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-french.html
The Very Basic Guide to Russian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html
The Very Basic Guide to Japanese http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/03/the-very-basic-guide-to-japanese.html
The Very Basic Guide to Mandarin Chinese http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-very-basic-guide-to-mandarin-chinese.html
The Very Basic Guide to Spanish http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-spanish.html

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Nora, Archeology near Pula in the South of Sardinia

 

The name of the city, Nora, comes from the ancient Greek Νῶρα (Nuras in the mediaeval Sardinian language) [1]. The city was build on a peninsula and today this still is a romantic place to go. The beach at Nora is enclosed by cliffs and the promontory and is sheltered from the wind. The church of Sant'Efisio can be seen there, but it had been closed [2]. 

The first settlement … it's hard to say, who had been there first as newer findings indicate settlements on Sardinia already during the old stone age (paleolithicum), in Sardinia case abour 120-140,000 years ago. There have been Nuragic settlements and then about 1000-800 BC the phoenician had built a trading outpost, then a settlement and town, which fell to the Romans after victory in the First Punic War (264-241 BC), making it shortly after the war in 238 BC. The Romans obliterated most of what had been built by Carthage. Nora declined after the Vandal conquest of Sardinia in 456 AD. The city, later only a simple fort had been abandoned in the 8th century.

As the south of Sardinia is sinking into the sea, some part of the old town are already under water, but most remains are still to be seen. Interestingly part of the Temple of Tanit, a Carthaginian goddess, survived. One can walk on old stones look at mosaic, columns, the amphitheatre and more. I was fascinated by amphorae, which served as resonance bodies in the theatre.   

There still is much work for archeologists, which could be seen at work.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora,_Italy
[2] You might say: a distraction less from the main topic. There is a procession for the saint during the Festa di Sant'Efisio in May each year. https://www.sardegnaturismo.it/en/explore/nora

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Strange Umbrellas and Birdcages above Streets

 

Pula in Sardinia

When I travelled this year in Sardinia and Jordan I've found strange installations. Maybe it's just a touristic / public relations gimmick, but at least I found an installation in Syndney in 2015 [1]. Concerning umbrellas I've found the Ágitagueda art festival in Portugal [2] and other canopies as well [3]. Let's have a look at my discoveries: 

Alghero in Sardinia

Amman

Amman

So there are also baskets. And I don't supect any art movement behind these eyecatchers. Just looking good.

Amman, next to Rainbow Street

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://ruthspitzer.com/2015/08/02/hidden-gem-in-sydneys-lane-way-suspended-birdcages/
[2] https://www.boredpanda.com/floating-umbrellas-canopy-street-agueda-portugal-2014/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
[3] Someone on Pinterest has found 30 streets with umbrella canopies around the world: https://www.pinterest.de/kanamovana/umbrella-streets-around-the-world/

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The Madaba Mosaic Map in the St. George Church

 

In the center it reads in red: ΒΗΘΛΕΕΜ (Greek for Bethlehem)

St. George is an early Byzantine church in Madaba, Jordan. Church an map date back to the period between 542 and 570 [1]. As being a mosaic it survived the vicissitudes of time and is „the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem“ nowadays. During the 8th century some figural motifs had been removed, but the city had been abandoned after a devasting earthquake in 746.

In red one can read ΗΑΓΙΑΠΟΛΙΣΙΕΡΟΥΣΑ[ΛΉΜ],
which means Holy City of Jerusa(lem)

Map used in an anjacent room of the museum
to avoid explanation inside the church

In 1884 the mosaic was rediscovered during the excavations on occation of the building of a new Orthodox Church on the old site. During the 1960ies German archeologists were working on the restauration and conservation of the mosaic (Heinz Cüppers and Herbert Donner). There is an interesting work in German by Jana Vogt [2]. About 150 towns and villages are depicted on the map. Even without knowing ancient Greek one can decipher quite a lot of biblical locations.

The rather unobtrusive church

Artisan working on the Jerusalem part of a mosaic replica

Modern mosaic replica of the whole map

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map    
[2] https://www.grin.com/document/59736 cited in [1] as: Jana Vogt: Architekturmosaiken am Beispiel der drei jordanischen Städte Madaba, Umm al-Rasas und Gerasa. Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Greifswald 2004 (Hausarbeit – seminar paper)

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LYRIK-Taschenkalender 2015 16. KW 29.12.2021

 

Michael Braun hat den LYRIK-Taschenkalender 2015 herausgegeben und zusammen mit Henning Ziebritzki alle am Taschenkalender beteiligten Autoren und Kommentatoren mit je einem Gedicht vorgestellt. Er ist mir jetzt wieder in die Hände gefallen. Auch dieser Kalender lädt ein zum Annotieren und Assoziieren, zum Erstellen von GegenEntwürfen. Vielleicht so auch ein wenig wie Daniel Spoerris: An Anecdoted Topography of Chance (1966 Something Else Press, New York / Cologne). Diese Annotationen stammen aus den Jahren 2014/2015 und 2020/2021.


16. KW
Jan Wagner: selbstporträt mit bienenschwarm

„Die Taliban sind keine Milchbärte. Die tragen Vollbart und Kalashnikow.“

Rüstung oder TauchAnzug -: HauptSache, man kann sich nicht rühren. (Nachträglich fällt mir noch ein, daß GewichtsDecken den Schlaf verbessern sollen. Da bin ich skeptisch.)

Rüstung -: Ned Kelly hatte sich eine Rüstung geschmiedet, also PflugScharen zu Rüstung. Das hat ihm aber nichts genutzt, denn man schoss ihm auf die Beine [1].

„hinter dem glanz“ -: verstecken sich Schweiß und Angst.

Angst
    laß uns
AufHören
Mit
Der
Angst
Geschäfte
AusZuHandeln
IrgendWann
Wird
Sie
VerRamscht
    Oder
EinGeStampft

Fratze
    hinDurchGeWatet
Durch
Schmeicheleien
Und
HalbWahrheiten
Um
Vor
Der
Fratze
Aller
BeSchimpfungen
Zu stehen -
    Einem
Spiegel


16. KW
Kommentar: Ralph Dutli

Rilke-Zitat: „Wir sind die Bienen des Unsichtbaren.“ -: Vielleicht doch die Wespen des Sichtbaren. Oder die Vespa des Unsichtbaren? Oder doch die Ape des Unsichtbaren? [2]

Nochmals das Rilke-Zitat: „Wir sind die Bienen des Unsichtbaren.“ -: oder: „we are stardust, we are golden“ ~~ Joni Mitchell [3]

Sandra Trojan: „Wenn ich in Bienen spreche“

„Verschwinden des Dichters“ im BienenSchwarm, im Gedicht -: "Vom Verschwinden des Malers im Bild": Victor Segalen, "Peintures" (1916) [4]

Links und weiteres:
[1] Sogar Arme und Beine, wie ich gerade lese: „Bei einem Ausbruchsversuch der Bande, geschützt durch ihre Rüstungen, wurde Kelly an den ungeschützten Armen und Beinen getroffen.“ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly Ned Kelly wurde ca. vier Monate stäter in Melbourne gehängt. „Seine letzten Worte werden oft als „Ah well, I suppose it has come to this ... Such is Life“ zitiert, sie erlangten landesweit Bekanntheit.“
[2] Vespa (Wespe / Motorroller) und Ape (Biene / dreirädriger Kleintransporter) des italienischen Fahrzeugherstellers Piaggio https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRjQCvfcXn0 Original von Joni Mitchell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nivr4YZzzME Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young) – höre ich lieber
[4] https://zettelsraum.blogspot.com/2021/05/vom-verschwinden-des-malers-im-bild.html
Zettels Raum / Vernünftige Gedanken von Gott, der Welt und der Seele des Menschen, auch allen Dingen überhaupt

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Masks and Murals in Mamoiada

Maybe you have already heard about the murals in Orgosolo and San Sperate, which stem from protest movements. The first mural was painted by Giuseppe Sciola in San Sperate in 1968 [1]. “In 1975 the mural activity began in Orgosolo with protest themes. The following year, in 1976, muralism arrived in Villamar thanks to the work of the two Chilean exiles Alan Jofrè and Uriel Parvex”; which I only like to mention [2].

I want to show some murals of Mamoiada, a village in the Nuoro area in the Sardinian mountains, which are colorful tales of daily history and especially they show scenes from carnival and the masks. Mamoiada posseses a Museum of Mediterranean Masks, which I could not visit, and is famous for Mamuthones and Issohadores (traditional carnival masks) [3]. “The museum focuses on the widespread use of wooden masks worn on the face, with animal and grotesque forms, as well as sheepskin and ram's skin, cowbells and other objects that make deafening sounds.“

The Mamuthones wear black mask and are clothed with black sheepskin and carry cowbells [4]. Mamuthones could go back to a Sardinian-Mycenaean term used to name the Phoenicians, melaneimones, meaning black faces. These black faces can still be seen on the Sadinian flag or the label of Ichnusa Beer. But the word may go back even further and have its origin in rain rites and mean “men invoking the rain”. The Issohadores wear white masks, white shirt, trousers and a red bodice.They also carry a rope, which is the reason for the name “rope carriers”. They give the pace to the carnival procession. One can buy these masks in Mamoiada.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://genteinviaggio.it/i-murales-sardegna/ and I I've also red: “Durch die ausdrucksstarken, evokativen Bilder kommuniziert Orgosolo mit Bewohnern und Besuchern gleichermaßen.” [Orgosolo communicates with residents and visitors alike through the expressive, evocative images.] The translation hardly carries the culturally pitched German original – https://www.sardegnaturismo.it/de/die-stille-stimme-der-wandmalereien-von-orgosolo
[2] I only like to mention these Chileneans as I still failed to write about the murals in Valparaiso, of which I took pictures a couple of years ago. Maybe I'll do so in the near future. Maybe I should also mention that there had been other activists, who had to flee from Chile after the murder / death / execution of Salvador Allende.
[3] https://www.sardegnaturismo.it/en/explore/museum-mediterranean-masks
[4] https://www.hotelgabbianoazzurro.com/fr/Blog/Masks-of-Sardinia-its-spectacular-folklore

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The Saltos de Petrohué and Wolfgang Hechenbichler

I have visited the Saltos de Petrohué in Chile three times – 1990, 2006 and 2017, always during November. Since the last visit there had been an open wound – and blood was oozing out of this wound – so to say – as two days ago the changing wallpaper of my laptop showed the Saltos de Petrohué.

Saltos del Petrohué is a chute-type waterfall of Rió Petrohué inside the Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park [1]; the source of this river is Lago Todos los Santos, which one can cross to Bariloche in Argentina. You can have a pretty view of both of the waterfall and Osorno volcano. It is safe to visit nowadays, but ouside the marked areas it still is dangerous.

I still like some of my inept old analog pictures, of which I scanned some. And I thought of having photographed a brass plate, saying that a German had died there. I had searched for this picture four years ago, last year and the past two days – in vain. The last visit had been with a guided tour and when I noticed that the brass plate hade gone, I asked the tour guide about the plate, but she had never seen it before. I already had searched in the internet for a rafting accident there, but could only find another recent, fatal accident of a young US-American [2]. I have been reasoning that the tourism industry did not like having such a plate there as rafting, not through the chute but on the lake, is advertised. But it is stranger still.

If I don't find something I develop a tenacity to look further. I should have looked up my old travel diary earlier as there it reads: „In memoriam Wolfgang Hechenbichler 1984“. I had copied the text of the plate in 1990! This was a new lead. I found that there is a homepage dedicated to the memory of Wolfgang Hechenbichler, who had been an artist [3]. Wolfgang Hechenbichler lived from 1953 until 1984. He had been granted a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at one of the art academies of Santiago de Chile [4]. The grave is in Villarrica [5], which is halfway in between Puerto Montt and Temuco; it looks quite like the graves in one of the small town around where I live [6].

Wolfgang Hechenbichler had lots of talents as he sculpted, painted or wrote texts. I am quite interested in stained glass and I've found some interesting work by him. The last church, which I've written about, is St. John Baptist in Ripsdorf [7]. And Wolfgang Hechenbichler has created stained glass of Salome and John Baptist [8]. Thanks to Balthasar Hechenbichler, the brother of Wolfgang Hechenbichler, and the Erbengemeinschaft the memory of this gifted artist will stay.

My open wound has closed, but I guess the wound of John Baptist will stay open for some time longer.

The Saltos de Petrohué and the landscape around is well worth a visit [9].

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrohu%C3%A9_Waterfalls
[2] Turista estadounidense murió tras caer a los saltos del río Petrohué / La víctima se habría lanzado a las aguas junto a otro joven de la misma nacionalidad, quien resultó con lesiones. https://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2011/11/15/512872/turista-norteamericano-fallece-tras-caer-a-los-saltos-del-petrohue.html  
[3] https://www.wolfganghechenbichler.de/
[4] Academia Chilena de Bellas Artes or Academia metropolitana de arte (?) – the German text doesn't differentiate.
[5] There's a picture on the already mentioned homepage: https://www.wolfganghechenbichler.de/bio_fotos.htm. The brass plate is the one of the cross not the lost plate at Saltos de Petrohué.
[6] Der Friedhof mit den Holzkreuzen in Nettersheim (text in German, the title means: The cemetery with the wooden crosses in Nettersheim), four pictures. https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2020/08/der-friedhof-mit-den-holzkreuzen-in.html
[7] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2021/12/st-johann-baptist-in-ripsdorf.html is in German, but the text on the castle of Herodes (Machaerus), where the head of John Baptist has been presented, is in English: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2021/11/machaerus-castle-where-herod-antipas.html.
[8] Salome https://www.wolfganghechenbichler.de/bild_gross.asp?baNum=15701 and the head of John Baptist https://www.wolfganghechenbichler.de/bild_gross.asp?baNum=15901
[9] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/01/carnaval-del-sur.html shows a celebration in Puerto Varas, which is situated at Lago Llanquihue, from where one can see the volcanos Osorno and Calbuco.

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LYRIK-Taschenkalender 2015 15. KW 27.12.2021

 

Michael Braun hat den LYRIK-Taschenkalender 2015 herausgegeben und zusammen mit Henning Ziebritzki alle am Taschenkalender beteiligten Autoren und Kommentatoren mit je einem Gedicht vorgestellt. Er ist mir jetzt wieder in die Hände gefallen. Auch dieser Kalender lädt ein zum Annotieren und Assoziieren, zum Erstellen von GegenEntwürfen. Vielleicht so auch ein wenig wie Daniel Spoerris: An Anecdoted Topography of Chance (1966 Something Else Press, New York / Cologne). Diese Annotationen stammen aus den Jahren 2014/2015 und 2020/2021.


15. KW
Nadja Küchenmeister: geleit

Laßt uns einsaugen den Geruch vom ersten Schnee dieses Sommers.

Zu viele Schmetterlinge in diesem Gedicht. Und niemand fragt sich, ob man träumt Schmetterling zu sein, oder ob ein Schmetterling träumt Mensch zu sein.

SelbstGespräch
    während
das HundeGebell
AbEbbt
Bleibt
Die
LiBelle
Über
Dem
TeichRand
Stehen
Bis
Dein
Innerer MonoLog
    Wieder
EinSetzt

Wald
    aus der
Kühle
Riecht
Man
Den
WaldMeister
Und
Der
WaldBoden
    Atmet
Schwer

Glocken
    was wäre
Der
SonnTag
Ohne
GlockenGeläut
Oder
Der Frühling
    Ohne
GlockenBlumen?


15. KW
Kommentar: Michael Braun

„Schwebezustände“ -: oder diese KneippKur mit Treten von warmem Honig. Dieses Gefühl von Blei [1]

„Wo gehen sie denn hin?“
„Wo laufen sie denn hin?“ [2]
„Wo gehen wir denn hin ...?“ -: immer im Kreis herum.

SchwebeZustände -: ich finde, daß Libellen einen SchwebeZustand besser illustrieren als Schmetterlinge, die doch mehr flattern.

Sommer
    die wenigen
RegenTropfen
Auf
Der
Staubigen
Straße
Nur
So
Ist es
    Wirklich
Sommer

Links und weiteres:
[1] Ich dachte gerade an die Nacht aus Blei. Hans Henny Jahnn: Die Nacht aus Blei. Roman. Wegner Verlag, Hamburg 1956.
[2] Eigentlich: „Ja, wo laufen sie denn, wo laufen sie denn hin?“ Wilhelm Bendow 1946 in dem Sketch „Auf der Rennbahn“.


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Kraniche – Nachzügler / Cranes – Stragglers

Gestern nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit, also noch am Nachmittag, hörte ich die Kraniche und das blieb auch so bis Mitternacht. Manchmal waren sie so nah, daß ich dachte, sie hätten sich auf dem Dach des Hauses niedergelassen oder in den Birken, aber das machen Kraniche nicht. Sie waren auf den Feldern zwischen Diefenbach und Sistig, wahrscheinlich auch um Steinfeld und ganz sicher auf der Krekeler Heide niedergegangen, um zu übernachten.

Ich dachte, daß die Kranichzüge vorbei wären, aber dann kamen diese Nachzügler. Heute Vormittag stiegen sie auf und orientierten sich zunächst nach Osten, sammelten sich zu größeren Gruppen und zogen dann nach Südwesten. Da hatte den Vorteil für mich, daß sie noch sehr tief über mein Grundstück zogen und damit auch sehr gut zu beobachten waren. Den Milan kümmerten weder Lärm noch die Vögel, die über ihn hinwegzogen, und dabei ließ er mich näher heran, als er das sonst zuläßt.

Zeitweise lösten sich einzelne Vögel aus einem Verband und flogen zurück. Wie es so in Reisegruppen ist, beim Durchzählen fehlen welchen, aber wir lassen niemanden zurück.

Ich nehme an, daß diese doch große Gruppe von Nachzüglern aus Norddeutschland und/oder Polen kamen, wo es jetzt kalt geworden ist und sie doch nicht überwintern können, denn fehlende Corona-Impfungen oder Reisebeschränkung fallen bei Kranichen als Grund weg.

Auf alle Fälle war es ein schönes Erlebnis zu Weihnachten 2021.

Yesterday after dark, that is still in the afternoon, I heard the cranes and it stayed that way until midnight. Sometimes they were so close that I thought they'd settled on the roof of the house or in the birch trees, but cranes don't do that. They had gone down in the fields between Diefenbach and Sistig, probably also around Steinfeld, and most certainly on the Krekeler Heide, to spend the night.
 
I thought the crane migrations were over, but then those stragglers came. They flew up this morning and initially oriented themselves to the east, gathered in larger groups and then moved to the southwest. For me it has been an advantage that they flew very low above my property and were thus very easy to observe. The Milan didn't care about the noise or the birds that passed over him, and yet he let me get closer than he usually allows.

At times, individual birds broke loose and flew back. As it is in tour groups, when counting some are missing, but we don't leave anyone behind.

I assume that this large group of stragglers came from northern Germany and / or Poland, where it has gotten cold now and yet they cannot overwinter, because missing corona vaccinations or travel restrictions are not reasons for cranes not to migrate.

In any case, it has been a nice experience at Christmas 2021.

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