μεταμορφώσεις

[Jeff Bernstein]

in a twynkelyng of an eye

 

and three things shall come before the judgment.

first the terrible confusion of signs.

secondly the malice and the deceit.

stelle ceciderunt super terram

the third, and the stars shall fall to the earth.

then the sonne of Justice shall be so darke

no one will know hym. there shall be pressure

and anguysshe that shall be upon the earth,

sayeth seynt Matthew in the iiii chapitre,

such tribulation that never was none

so great to be seen since the world began;

there shall be a marvellous noise and sound.

the sea shall be lifted xl cubits

above the mountains; and to speak after

the letter, playnly after the sentence

of saynt gregore, Thenne shall the sea be

made newe, and with troubling of the waves

that never were herd lyke. After, the sea

shall assuage and goo down; and then the trees

and herbes shall give dew of blood, and the birds

of the air shall assemble in the fields,

each kind by themselves, and nor eat nor drinke,

but shall abide the coming of the judge.

and then all shall issue out of their caves

and shall go by the ways and fields as men

alienated and out of their witte;

and around them the dead shall rise from graves.

and the beasts shall come out of the forests

howling, and they shall nor eat nor drinke.

the xiiii day heaven and earth shall burn.

the xv day shall be a new heaven

and earth. the judge shall dispute the wicked,

and they shall not more reply, but shall weep

in great distress. There shall nothing abide

to them but weeping. For what followeth

the doom is the straightness and the rigour

of the judge; who bows or leans for nothing;

so the day has come that a good conscience

is better than a sack ful of moneye.

[Jeff Bernstein]

structural beginnings : Tarantino and the early English prose of the Golden Legend (1483)

The man that now hath vii dayes whan he shal be joyned to god, fro whom the joynynge shal neuer be nullified, thenne shall he have the viii daye.

 

Mobray. The man who pulls the lever, that breaks your neck, will be a dispassionate man.

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Sauf le nom

 

but why this name? This is the name that seynt poul bare to fore the peple and to fore kynges. This name ijesus is of grete swetenes, whereof saith saynt bernard ¶ Yf thou be Cryst, it hath no savoure in me, but yf y rede this name Jhesus

 

[ but ] A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

 

Rychard of saynt victor saith thus ¶ Jhesus is a swete name, a name delectable, a name confortyng the synnar, & a name of holy hope. Thenne Jhesus is to me swete Jhesus, that is to saye my sayvour.

 

One toke over the line, Sweet Jesus, one toke over the line

 

Ce « moi » qui s’approche du texte est déjà lui-même une pluralité d’autres textes, de codes infinis, ou plus exactement : perdus (dont l’origine se perd).

 

The “I” is already an infinite multiplicity whose origins are lost. (S/Z)

 

     Das etwas muß man lassen.

Mensch so du etwas liebst, so liebstu nichts fürwahr:

Gott ist nicht diß und das, drum laß das Etwas gar.

 

  You must leave the ‘Something’.

You—if you love ‘something’, you love nothing :

God is not this or that; so let go the ‘Something’.

[Jeff Bernstein]

¶ Scrooby’s iii more kings

Long ago, xii pilgrims scaled a mountain to pray and fast for iii days and nights. On the night of the third day the pilgrims dreamed the same dream, which, on waking, they related to each other, speaking of a starre coming in the sky as a sign of a monumental birth in the world. Follow the starre, they all agreed, and see a miracle ¶ The pilgrims kept the news of all this to themselves. Somehow King Herod heard the same news ¶ In the meantime, let us move to a seaside pier and observe iii Magi as they sell a country girl into foreign slavery. The iii Magi were common ‘magicians’, huckster-scroungers using tricks from hambone prophecy to light-fingered theft. The girl was profitable to them, well-born, seven years old, and destined as another concubine of a Sultan. The iii Magi counted their coins happily when they left the sea ¶ Scrooby was watching from where she watches, quiet as a slinking cat, and waxed wroth. She was considering punishments for the iii Magi when she saw a shooting starre cross the sky. She had an idea, which backfired in the short term but eventually she received satisfaction ¶ This same starre Herod saw from the balcony of his palace. His Dreamers instructed his majesty that the child the public would call their king, in defiance of all law, was tonight to be born ¶ The iii Magi were counting their coins when an old woman stood in their way. “What would ye have?” they asked of her. She told them of the finest virgin that ever was or would be. “Watch the skies,” she told them, “and follow the signs” ¶ The iii Magi looked and saw the shooting starre in the sky ¶ The old woman was Scrooby in disguise; trite, but it worked. She shot up and with her arms out hit the starre and pushed, sending it off in a novel direction. So the starre veered helter-skelter; and at Herod’s palace the Dreamers watched dubiously. And the iii Magi proceeded on their dromedaries across the desert in pursuit of the erroneous starre, and came to Bethlem. Here Scrooby rested, and sat on the starre, and took a nap ¶ Down below, the iii Magi heard the cries of a baby in the night; then saw a stable. They entered in and saw the newborn in the arms of Mary. The child had s—t himself and the stench was considerable. The iii Magi returned to their dromedaries and brought back spices to flavour the air, and balms to soothe the baby. When this was done, the iii Magi decided, after discussion, that Mary was not the virgin they were looking for ¶ The iii Magi left the stable and were detained by the police and questioned; then they left Bethlem ¶ When Herod heard of this, he commanded the iii Magi stand in the royal presence; so they came and explained themselves. Herod then sent guards to the stable; but the infant Jhesus was already gone, with Mary and Joseph ¶ Then King Herod demanded that the iii Magi return to the royal presence; but the iii Magi had already absconded. Back in their homelands, while stories of their exploits circulated, the iii Magi enjoyed great fame. Each acquired many wives, a large extended family and great wealth. When they died, each was buried in a civic tomb of great worship ¶ But the place where the miraculous starre was meant to go? There, in obscurity, a child was born, lived, and died ¶ And when the iii Magi stood in judgment at the day of doom, they were sent to Hell.

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

In open desert comes a taint of death

now and again at the heart of the air,

brought into your body with every breath;

but you look around and see nothing there

dubious in the twittering birds, the stones;

and sunlight feels fresh as on the first day;

yet a stynkyng teases at the senses.

It’s like a something that no one can say.

What is in the offing beyond that hill

up ahead?—Remnants of the dead, bare bones

bleached white, covered now in ordure and swill

dropping from on high; for there is a cross

     raised up at a place of execution

     as punishment for villainy and sin.

[Jeff Bernstein]

You are risen

 

1

The resurrection of lord Jhesu cryst

was the third day after his deth. Henceforth

the ordre of the dayes was changed, from day

to night, to night to day. Before, the dayes

wente byfore & the nyghts folowed. After

the time of the Passion that order was chaunged,

for the nights go before, & this is by mysterie.

& the saynts saith in consideracion :

from the nyght of sinne to the day of grace.

 

2

Thenne it ought to be knowen accordyng

to Reason why he ought not to arise

but there to abide unto the third day;

and of the five reasons, herewith is one :

There was benefite in doing three days

in his sepulcure in figure; to wit,

to restore them than ben falle, to repair

them that ben in therthe, and redeem them

that were in hell. So then. On the sixth day

of the week Jhesus suffered death, then lay

in the sepulcure on the Saturday,

and on the sondaye he aroos. This day,

the Sunday, is the eighth of the Passion.

& the saynts saith in consideracion :

Sixth is sorrow, seventh rest, eighth glorye.

 

3

And so to consider how he aroos,

it appiereth he aroos myghtyly,

for then he toke awaye all myserye.

Also, mind you, he roos prouffytably,

for he brought with him his proof (said Jerome).

& the saynts saith in consideracion :

the lyon is risen out of his bedde.

[Jeff Bernstein]

And Jhesus drew holy souls out of hell

during the iii days of the sepulcure;

but of this the euangelist telleth

not clearly. Nevertheles saynt austyn

and nychodemus in his gospell

shewe it somwhat. We know that as Jhesu

descended into helle, the nyght began

to brighten clere as day; and the porter

with them in sylence at the sepulcure

began to murmure, sayeng, “What is this

so terrible and of clerenes so shynyng?”

 

Far below under the earth was a place

of obcurity & darkness; suddenly

it was also light and clear as the sun,

which illumed all the habitation.

 

And when he was deppest of the derkenes,

the voices of hell began to demaunde

and enquyre, What is this soul so strong?

What is this so terryble and so shynyng?

 

And for what seemed endless time he endured

all the cruell wordes of those rotting in hell;

then at once, at his commandment, the locks

and all the bars were shattered into pieces.

 

And he unbound them of their bonds, and they

that were wont to waylle&weepe, wailed

and wept; for their wepynges had been converted

to joys. And lo, the souls came before him

in cryeng with pytous voys, sayeng,

Oure redemptor. Thenne Satan prynce of deth

said, If thou art so myghty and so grete—

but he said no more, for lyke an angele

God sprange on hye & departed. And so

it was, they write, swete god despoylled helle.

 

Here speketh thinges lyke founden in somme bookes.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Sneezing in the Middle Ages

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Windows

A pattern is emerging

[Jeff Bernstein]

Patterns

The Love Story of Aucassin & Nicolete / "Belle Erembor"

[Jeff Bernstein]

The River

David Carson, of Surfer Magazine

[Jeff Bernstein]

NBK

[Jeff Bernstein]

Lunch in the Courtyard / Das Mittagessen im Hof

We often complain about how impossible it is to deal with some people. Of course, that may well be true. Many of these impossible people are not evil, however, only different; and if you know them inside and out [ inwendig und aufwendig ] and know how to handle them, you can bring some of them to their senses. A servant once managed this with his master. Sometimes a servant can’t do anything right; and wages are debited for broken items of which one is innocent, as is often the case. One day the master came home grumpy and sat down to lunch. The soup was too hot or too cold or neither, but the master was annoyed. He took the bowl with everything in it and tossed it out the window into the courtyard. What, then, did the servant do? Coolly he took the meat he was about to place on the table and tossed it out the window after the soup, then the bread, then the wine; and finally the tablecloth with everything on it went down into the courtyard. “Fool!” said the master. “What is this?”—And with a menacing rage he rose from his chair. But the servant stayed calm, and replied : “Forgive me if I have misunderstood. I thought you wanted to dine in the courtyard. The air is so clear, the sky so blue, and look how beautifully the apple tree blooms, and how cheerfully the bees have their lunch.” ¶ Never again would the soup be tossed out the window. The master brightened up at the sight of the springtime sky and realised his mistake. He smiled inside at his servant’s quick thinking, and thanked him at heart for the good teaching.

 

Johann Peter Hebel

[Jeff Bernstein]

I want your life for one minute, where my big problem is somebody offers me a free convertible so I can get out of this city.

[Jeff Bernstein]

A “Christopher Nolan moment” in 2001 : A Space Odyssey

Together in the open space of Temporality is the otherwise socially anomalous juxtaposition of “a drink” and “breakfast”.

[Jeff Bernstein]

I'm sure it beefed up morale a hell of a lot.

Business is very food, thank you.

[Jeff Bernstein]

A minimum of human moves as energy conservation, as a warrior would endeavour to act.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Prometheus & the origin of jewellery

fabulae primordium a rupe caucasi tradunt, promethei vinculorum interpretatione fatali, primumque saxi eius fragmentum inclusum ferro ac digito circumdatum: hoc fuisse anulum et hoc gemmam.

 

We are told by tradition that the beginnings of jewellery originated on a cliff-face in the Caucasus mountains. Prometheus set a fragment of the rock in iron and wrapped it around his finger : this was the first ring, and the first jewel.

 

Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 37.1

[Jeff Bernstein]

Honest Abe, a Halloween story for cinematography.com

 

Honest Abe was the name the townspeople gave to their foremost citizen, for Abraham of Canaan’s piety was well-known, and exemplified itself at every opportunity. Not a one of the townspeople lived but could speak of a charity done to them by Honest Abe. He had a wife, Sarah, and a newborn, the darling Issac, and the townspeople spoke glowingly of this holy family, and took pride that it was their town where Honest Abe lived and dealt out his good works ¶ God appeared to Abraham in a dream and demanded he slay Issac. Abraham debated with God. Why must I slay the apple of his mother’s eye? ¶ Then Abraham spoke with friends in secret, like Dan & Jimmy in the law books in Fatal Attraction; and while commentary flourished, no answer withstood rejection but one. So he swaddled up what he loved, and whom his wife loved, and went up the mount, and read Pet Sematary, and sharpened the blade so as to cut his child’s throat. All this he did; then God all this ceased ¶ So Abraham swaddled up the son and carried him down the mount to mother. Humiliated now, was the father, amid the celebrations.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Scrooby’s Halloween II

 

 . . . Mosem non legem modo, quam quinque exaratam libris posteris reliquit, sed secretiorem quoque et veram legis enarrationem in monte divinitus accepisse; praeceptum autem ei a Deo ut legem quidem populo pulbicaret, legis interpretationem nec traderet libris, nec invulgaret, sed ipse Iesu Nave tantum, tum ille aliis deinceps succedentibus sacerdotum primoribus, magna silenti religione, revelaret.

 

On the mount, Moses not only received the Law, which he set down for posterity in five books. He also received from God a more secret and true narration of the Law; and while he was commanded by God to promote the published law to the people, he was not to commit the secret law to books, or make it known to the people; then Jhesu in his turn would reveal to other high priests this great conspiracy of silence [ magna silenti religione ] .

 

Pico della Mirandola, De hominis dignitate

[Jeff Bernstein]

Munny. I was lucky in the order, but I've always been lucky when it comes to killing folks.

Medea. Fortuna semper omnis infra me stetit. ["I've always been lucky (in getting away)."]

[Jeff Bernstein]

The Magic Circle / Magischer Kreis

 

A metaphor for the sound of church bells general over the city, from the second paragraph of Der Erwählte (1951) by Thomas Mann :

 

Wie es tönt, wenn der Wind, wenn der Strum gar wühlt in den Saiten der Äolsharfe und gänzlich die Klangwelt aufgeweckt ist, was weit voneinander und nahe beisamnen, in schwirrender Allharmonie

 

Translated (1952) by the fine H. T. Lowe-Porter :

 

As when the wind, when the tempest rakes the strings of the aeolian harp and rouses the whole world of sound, the far apart and the close at hand, in whirring, sweeping harmony

 

wühlt, from wühlen. We could peek at the authoritative Deutsches Wörterbuch or the online Cambridge German-English Dictionary, but let’s zip to the efficiently compendiary Etymological Dictionary of the German Language (1891)—

 

wühlen, verb, to root, grub up, burrow, rummage, stir up

 

Note, kind reader, the character of the last two verbs : the action is founded in the earth.

 

Founded in the earth—but the context can be transposed : from, say, the fox was rummaging around for roots to he rummaged in his pockets for his key, to, say,

 

when the tempest rakes the strings of the aeolian harp and rouses the whole world of sound

 

Still and all, it is to be remembered that the verb wühlen is founded in a literally earthy context.

 

Now, kind reader, consider the following, from the Mann—

 

the far apart and the close at hand

 

The movement of wühlt may be associated, say, not only with the physical activity of the stirring of strings, but is also a reaching back to the past.

 

In many notable stories of the Middle Ages, each story’s beginning and ending are ingeniously linked as a Magic Circle—(Allharmonie). So it is no surprise that Der Erwählte, which is the retelling of a tale from Middle High German c1200, stirs up contemplations of beginnings and endings, of long durations between . . . , of ineluctable destiny (Klangwelt), right at the outset of the ceremony of storytelling (Äolsharfe), a ceremony in which the Reader now is to expect such a magic circle. How things turn out is the adventure of reading (i.e. living).

 

A first-rate story is always, among all else, a meditation on Destiny.

 

The Magic Circle, the meditation (wühlen) of the mysteries of humanness in time, the ending encoded in the beginning, the destiny that cannot be got around, may in one sense be encapsulated thus :

 

Pam. I suddenly knew the secret of everything—that we’re all one, the universe is one.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26 by Jeff Bernstein