Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts

12 April 2011

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (New Spain, 1648-1695)

En perseguirme, mundo, ¿que interesas?
¿En que te ofendo, cuando solo intento
poner bellezas en mi entendimiento
y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

Yo no estimo tesoros ni riquezas;
y asi, siempre me causa mas contento
poner riquezas en mi pensamiento
que no mi pensamiento en las riquezas.

Y no estimo hermosura que, vencida,
es despojo civil de las edades,
ni riqueza me agrada fementida,

teniendo por mejor, en mis verdades,
consumir vanidades de la vida
que consumir la vida en vanidades

16 March 2011

frustrated with the spanish music scene.

after an entire day listening to really horrible (I mean, really horrible) Spanish music, in feeble attempts to trigger the Spanish flip in my brain, I finally stumbled on the Spanish indie scene...

...and the only artist I really liked was a woman under the moniker "Russian Red."
...who sings in English :/



20 February 2011

sunday--



  1. My first time at the Episcopal Church in Athens, with Ms. Kelley McArthur and farm friends. I was incredibly impressed.
  2. Philosophical ponderings/general orneriness with Mr. Kelly Latimore (who gifted me the beautiful book of Chilean poetry and prose, pictured above).
  3. Chit-chats with Ms. Morky Magic.
  4. Skype with my music-making-soul-brother, who is going somewhere big; just you see.
  5. Thesis. Thesis. Thesis.
  6. Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire.
  7. ice cream sandwiches.
(a good day)
-----
EL VERDADERO PROBLEMA
de la Filosofía.
(Nicanor Parra)

es quién lava los platos
nada del otro mundo
Dios
la verdad
el transcurso del tiempo
claro que sí
pero primero quién lava los platos

el que quiera lavarlos que los lave
chao pescao
y tan enemigos como ante

(THE GREAT ENIGMA/ of philosophy/ is who's going to wash the dishes/ it isn't life after death/ God/ Truth/ the passage of time/ [these things] of course/ but first who's going to wash the dishes
he who wants to wash them, let him wash them/ later alligator/ and true enemies forever).

17 February 2011

words Microscoft Word tells me aren't words.

  1. liminal
  2. situationally
  3. intersex
  4. intranationally (strangely; it accepts "internationally" as a word--go figure).
  5. intersectionality
  6. transnationalist
  7. transnationalism
There's a word in Spanish I've always loved: ensimismamiento
the definition is: concentrándose en los propios pensamientos.
(and a loose English translation would be: a noun for the action of two beings' uniting themselves in each other's thoughts, which become the same thought).

My parents call it "minds touching."
And there's a pretty sweet Stephen Dunn poem about it, too.
Ensimismarse is the verb, and ensimismado is the participle--but get this: ensimismado, the participle, is also used as a noun to mean the person whose mind touches yours. (Ensimismada would be the female equivalent).

That word doesn't exist in English. I'm not so sure the person exists outside of language, either. Maybe for moments, but not for a lifetime.

Love isn't thinking the same way; it's caring enough to commit to trying to understand.

Transnationalism, on the other hand, is very real.
And so is liminality. Oh, liminality. I can feel it.