.
Lenticular Cloud (altocumulus lenticularis), near Mt. Hood, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 12 January 2014
Friedrich Hölderlin: Die Kürze (Brevity)
"Warum bist du so kurz? liebst du, wie vormals, denn
...."Nun nicht mehr den Gesang? fandst du, als Jüngling, doch
........"In den Tagen der Hoffnung,
............"Wenn du sangest, das Ende nie?“
"Warum bist du so kurz? liebst du, wie vormals, denn
...."Nun nicht mehr den Gesang? fandst du, als Jüngling, doch
........"In den Tagen der Hoffnung,
............"Wenn du sangest, das Ende nie?“
Wie mein Glück, ist mein Lied. -- Willst du im Abendroth
....Froh dich baden? Hinweg ist’s, und die Erd’ ist kalt,
........Und der Vogel der Nacht schwirrt
............Unbequem vor das Auge dir.
Brevity
"Why so brief these days? Don't your songs move you
..as they once did? Back when you were young
......and your days were full of hope and you wanted
.........your singing never to come to an end?"
As my luck goes, so goes my song. Would you have the glow
As my luck goes, so goes my song. Would you have the glow
...of the setting sun put you right? It's gone! And the Earth grows cold
......and the ungainly bird of night flutters down
.........much too near, so that you must shield your eyes.
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): Die Kürze (Brevity), 1798, English version by TC
TO IMPE'ND. v.n. [impendeo, Latin.] To hang over; to be at hand; to press nearly.
Destruction sure o'er all your heads impends;
Ulysses comes, and death his steps attends.
Pope's Odyssey
Samuel Johnson: A Dictionary of the English Language, 1st ed., 1755
Fate is the antithesis of natural law. A natural law is something you fathom and make use of, but not fate.
The use of the word "fate". Our attitude to the future and the past. To what extent do we hold ourselves responsible for the future? How much do we speculate about the future? How do we think about the past and the future? If something unwelcome happens: -- do we ask "Whose fault is it", do we say "It must be somebody's fault", -- or do we say "It was God's will", "It was fate"?
In the sense in which asking a question and insisting on an answer is expressive of a different attitude, a different mode of life, from not asking it, the same can be said of utterances like "It is God's will" or "We are not masters of our fate". The work done by this sentence, or at any rate something like it, could also be done by a command! Including one which you give yourself. And conversely the utterance of a command, such as "Don't be resentful", may be like the affirmation of a truth.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, private notes, 1947, inVermischte Bemerkungen (1977), edited by G.H. von Wright; translated by Peter Winch as Culture and Value, 1980
impending walmart, dead of night snowing. walking around in last night's blizzard: photo by Clayton Percy, 4 February 2014
Scarecrow, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 4 February 2014
Frozen field, Canby, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 18 December 2013
Watery Grave (Wakefield, Massachusetts): photo by Jim Rohan (LowerDarnley), 6 February 2014
salt and ice mix. cold knees: photo by Clayton Percy, 2 February 2014
wet spot with lines: photo by Clayton Percy, 11 January 2014
sleet on the boardwalk 1 (yesterday's sleet storm): photo by Clayton Percy, 31 January 2014
wet sleet on the boardwalk (more culvert work from the day of the sleet): photo by Clayton Percy, 2 February 2014
Lenticular cloud, Hammil Valley, California: photo by Jeff Ross, 25 January 2014
Palm trees (Oceanside, California): photo by michaelj1998, 2 January 2014
Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 27 January 2014
Pier (Oceanside, California): photo by michaelj1998, 2 January 2014
View from the Edge of a Cliff, Cape Kiwanda, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 12 January 2014
exit: one crow tree / none crow tree (Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio): photo by wood_owl, 23 January 2014
Last light, Mt. Hood, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 12 January 2014