Of Dante,The Trio Syndrome and The Wall Of Flies

drawing/collage by marguerita

Canto I

Dante, astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which he begins to ascend; he is hindered by three beasts; he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him into the eternal world.

Midway upon the road of our life I found myself within a dark wood, for the right way had been missed.

Ah! how hard a thing it is to tell what this wild and rough and dense wood was, which in thought renews the fear!

So bitter is it that death is little more. But in order to treat of the good that there I found, I will tell of the other things that I have seen there. I cannot well recount how I entered it, so full was I of slumber at that point where I abandoned the true way. But after I had arrived at the foot of a hill, where that valley ended which had pierced my heart with fear, I looked on high, and saw its shoulders clothed already with the rays of the planet[1] that leadeth men aright along every path. Then was the fear a little quieted which in the lake of my heart had lasted through the night that I passed so piteously. And even as one who with spent breath, issued out of the sea upon the shore, turns to the perilous water and gazes, so did my soul, which still was flying, turn back to look again upon the pass which never had a living person left.

[1] The sun, a planet according to the Ptolemaic system.

After I had rested a little my weary body I took my way again along the desert slope, so that the firm foot was always the lower. And ho! almost at the beginning of the steep a she-leopard, light and very nimble, which was covered with a spotted coat. And she did not move from before my face, nay, rather hindered so my road that to return I oftentimes had turned.

The time was at the beginning of the morning, and the Sun was mounting upward with those stars that were with him when Love Divine first set in motion those beautiful things;[1] so that the hour of the time and the sweet season were occasion of good hope to me concerning that wild beast with the dappled skin. But not so that the sight which appeared to me of a lion did not give me fear. He seemed to be coming against me, with head high and with ravening hunger, so that it seemed that the air was affrighted at him. And a she-wolf,[2] who with all cravings seemed laden in her meagreness, and already had made many folk to live forlorn,—she caused me so much heaviness, with the fear that came from sight of her, that I lost hope of the height And such as he is who gaineth willingly, and the time arrives that makes him lose, who in all his thoughts weeps and is sad,—such made me the beast without repose that, coming on against me, little by little was pushing me back thither where the Sun is silent.

[1] According to old tradition the spring was the season of the creation.

[2] These three beasts correspond to the triple division of sins into those of incontinence, of violence, and of fraud. See Canto XI.

While I was falling back to the low place, before mine eyes appeared one who through long silence seemed hoarse. When I saw him in the great desert, "Have pity on me!" I cried to him, "whatso thou art, or shade or real man." He answered me: "Not man; man once I was, and my parents were Lombards, and Mantuans by country both. I was born sub Julio, though late, and I lived at Rome under the good Augustus, in the time of the false and lying gods. Poet was I, and sang of that just son of Anchises who came from Troy after proud Ilion had been burned. But thou, why returnest thou to so great annoy?

Why dost thou not ascend the delectable mountain which is the source and cause of every joy?"

"Art thou then that Virgil and that fount which poureth forth so large a stream of speech?" replied I to him with bashful front: "O honor and light of the other poem I may the long seal avail me, and the great love, which have made me search thy volume! Thou art my master and my author; thou alone art he from whom I took the fair style that hath done me honor. Behold the beast because of which I turned; help me against her, famous sage, for she makes any veins and pulses tremble." "Thee it behoves to hold another course," he replied, when he saw me weeping, "if thou wishest to escape from this savage place; for this beast, because of which thou criest out, lets not any one pass along her way, but so hinders him that she kills him! and she has a nature so malign and evil that she never sates her greedy will, and after food is hungrier than before. Many are the animals with which she wives, and there shall be more yet, till the hound [1] shall come that will make her die of grief. He shall not feed on land or goods, but wisdom and love and valor, and his birthplace shall be between Feltro and Feltro. Of that humble

Allegorically, the Inferno represents the soul seeing sin for what it really is,

and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.^[9] These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell:

All we need is LOVE & poetry

drawings by marguerita
Loin du monde, au cœur de la « sauvagerie » (« wilderness »), sa nostalgie d’un monde qui disparaît ne le quitte pas. Il voudrait fixer à jamais cette « beauté déchirante qui s’évanouit peu à peu tragiquement sous nos yeux ».

 On dirait un acteur méditant sur son passé au soir de sa carrière. 

Nick veut montrer les animaux « en train d’être, tout simplement, avant qu’ils ne soient plus.

Watching at Union Square: Life is a Bitch

drawing by marguerita

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors,Please

photo by marguerita

Amours polymorphes

Quelle forme il a, l'Amour ?
Je devrais dire "les amours", d'ailleurs...

Alors, quelles formes prennent-elles, nos Amours ?
Animales, filiales, éphémères et éternelles.
Platoniques, érotiques, vaches et colombes.

Elles vont, elles viennent..
Et reviennent, entre nos riens.
Elles font battre nos coeurs et dérèglent nos sens.
Elles se travestissent à nous faire perdre la raison.
Comme grand jour de carnaval, elles se font portraits chinois.

Ce blog vous propose de partager quelques uns des déguisements de ce joli Cupidon à la flèche capricieuse. Tour à tour mythologie, comptine, tragi-comédie, ces métamorphoses sont parfois à rire ou à pleurer, toujours à nous émouvoir.

Que diriez-vous d'un poème par jour jusqu'à ce que Cupidon vide son carquois ?

Marcia Cowl

Viva Obama: Together,Yes We Can!

drawing/ watercolor by marguerita
What a wonderful moment in all of our lives on this Earth. I feel on my skin and happy to witness the barrier of unjust prejudice of all kinds to finally face the inevitable.Being the daughter of Holocaust survivors,born in one country growing up in another ,from uprooted wonderful human beings,who were able to instill in me perseverance,hope and a conscience for social awareness,to believe in mankind even after the most horrible experience both my parents endured,both taught me that Life is about feelings,emotions,colors and hope. I myself, upon coming to America,as a self made person, recognized for my talent, internationally,only to be maligned and silenced by an evil character in New York City, causing me to be sidelined and hurt.
I am in tears and hopeful,that the corrupt vision that had permeated through and destroying America,in every level and aspect, for years and years,has reached its end. This part of the world was already centuries ago, a beacon of light. Kings .queens and thinkers trusted their inner beliefs that from here , there would be a source of spiritual energy to allow us all, to share the air,waters and Beauty of Existence.
With passion.
I can only paraphrase what I heard years ago from my dear principal in Brazil, Dona Soledade Santos,who for many years later in my life wrote to me: "Nao sejas pusilanime nas agruras da vida e nem exaltado nos momentos de prazer".Manter o equilibrio e saber viver.Nao se empolgue,pois, com os sucessos.Nao se abata, tambem, com criticas e insucessos. Tudo passa.Procure ser estavel.Voce assim, encontrara na vida, a verdadeira razao de ser. A vida e um eterno caminhar. Caminhe,caminhe,caminhe.minha filha. O que tera de ser seu,vira ao seu encontro."

The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia