Rhyme is Sublime

            On Wednesday morning I had still just short of half of  “Le complainte du progres" by Boris Vian memorized.

            I started memorizing “L’amour en privé” (Love in Private) by Serge Gainsbourg and already had it more than half down in an hour. I should have it nailed on Thursday morning.

            I worked on my translation of “Les petites vieilles” by Charles Baudelaire but only had the third verse done by the time I had to leave for class:

The Little Crones

In the sinuous folds of the oldest cities
where enchantment blossoms from fear of harm
obeying my fatal humour I study
decrepit beings of remarkable charm

These disjointed monsters were one time young women,
Éponine or Laïs! Now bent and weary monsters

Come love them! As they are still souls although broken
beneath the cold fabric of their skirts in tatters

They crawl while whipped by iniquitous kisses
They shudder from the thunder of rolling busses

And press to their side like a relic of Jesus
A small bag embroidered with flowers or puzzles

            The black, tubular iron railing at the southeast corner of the grounds of University College was filled with locked bicycles. I started walking around to the lawn side of the railing to lock my bike like someone else had done when a woman that was mowing the lawn on the rise near the east side of the building called to me and said I could lock my bike along the railing up there. She said it’s better to do it on the outside.

            Our classroom was empty again. I plugged my laptop in, went online and did a bit more of the translation before class started:

 They all totter very much like marionettes;
drag themselves as if they were wounded beasts

            Professor Lee started talking about our upcoming 150-300 word essay which I only just realized is due next week, the same day as my Seminar Starter and presentation. She doesn’t seem to mind if the seminar starter and the essay are the same piece of writing as long as it meets the essay criteria. I’m a bit scared though because I hadn’t realized I had so little time.

            She gave us a review of last week’s subject of William Morris’s “The Defence of Guenevere”. To portray the grotesquery of modern consciousness under the duress of industrialization he uses optical details like solid colours. The poem deals with the gender issue of how femininity is constructed. We see the difference here between the Pre-Raphaelites and the Decadents. Guenevere is arguing against convention towards a more sensual morality that still has a sense of justice. The Pre-Raphaelites say that the right art form is the right morality.

            Algernon Charles Swinburne started out as a Pre-Raphaelite but became the first English Decadent. He was a chronic drunk and a masochist. He wrote sensuous poems with a type of flash. He thought that poetry should not be social criticism but that does not mean his poetry was not political. The form of his work is unique for its images. He worshipped Charles Baudelaire. He said Baudelaire was sad and strange, presenting a weird pain that delights in problems and pushes against our comfort zone. Those that see problems may change the world.

            Swinburne has often been anthologized and his poem “Hertha” contains a lot of his political principles.

            Our seminar started was by Marco Carulli, who chose stanza five of “Hertha” to show how Swinburne uses rhyme, assonance and alliteration to create a visual and audio effect and to push the envelope of reality.

            I pointed out that the fifth stanza seems very Buddhistic:

I the mark that is missed

And the arrows that miss

I mouth that is kissed

And the breath in the kiss

The search and the sought and the seeker, the soul and the body that is

            The last line of every stanza is very long.

            This mythopoeic work talks of birth and giving birth, the nature of deity and presents a naturalistic view of life to replace Christianity.

            Swinburne sets out to work on the reader.

            There are elements of the influences of Blake, Whitman, Hugo and De Sade.

            A critic suggested that Swinburne surprised even himself with this poem.

            We had a five-minute break.

            We discussed “Les petites vieilles” by Charles Baudelaire. She said it was a very good translation. I told her that I disagreed and that it is a reprehensible translation because it does not rhyme. She seems to think it’s perfectly legitimate for translations to be in free verse. My respect for hr dropped a bit after hearing that. As we went through the poem I referred to the French original and pointed out how the translation was inaccurate. It was a very animated discussion. The professor suggested that I write my own translation and I told her that I’d already done three verses but I had my seminar starter and my essay to write for next week accompanied by my translation of “Au lecteur” by Baudelaire and so I might not have time.

            When I got home I had a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and took a late siesta.

            I worked on my journal.

            I heated a small can of beans with pork for dinner and had it with one piece of toast and a beer while watching Wanted Dead or Alive, starring Steve McQueen.

            In this story a man wearing a riverboat captain’s uniform with a cap that says “Missouri Queen” gets off a stage in Longhorn City and immediately goes to slip a piece of paper under the hotel room door of saloon card dealer Tracy Ryan. Tracy picks it up and sees that it’s a "wanted for murder” poster with her picture on it and the name Stacy Torrance. She immediately goes to the saloon where Josh Randall is playing poker and asks to talk with him. She tells him the story of how she married a gambler back in Missouri and she'd put up the money to buy a riverboat so they could go into partnership. Later he'd told her he wanted the boat all to himself and tried to kill her. In the struggle he tripped and fell on his knife and she dumped his body in the river and ran away. Now she's sure that Leo is alive and is putting up the wanted posters so some bounty hunter will capture or kill her. She needs Josh to find Leo to prove he’s not dad and so she will only be tried for attempted murder. While Josh is looking for Torrance some bounty hunters start looking for Tracy. Josh comes back to find that the hotel clerk has tied her up so he can turn her in for the $300 reward. Josh frees Tracy and takes her with him to where Torrance is holed up. When they find him Leo is pretty smug. Josh is going to take them both in to the sheriff when Tracy for some stupid reason kills Leo and tells Josh that now he can take her in for murder. The ending made no sense other than the writer trying to be cute.

            Tracy was played by Mala Powers, who did her first film at the age of eleven but decided to continue studying rather than become a child actor. She worked in radio and then in 1950 got the lead role in "Outrage" and the role of Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac. She took ill in the 1950s but when she returned to acting her career had lost momentum and all she got were B westerns and science fiction movies. She became a teacher and lecturer.