Thought for the Day April 15, 2001

Subject: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peg
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 11:31 AM

A poem written for Easter Sunday by Irish cleric Siadhal mac Feredach (later known as Sedulius Scottus), to Tado, the Archbishop of Milan:

Christ the true Sun rose
from the dark last night,
The mystic harvest of the lord's own field.
Now wandering tribes of bees joyously sport
between the flowers,
seeking their nectars sweet.
The honeyed winds with birdsong are bedewed,
Nocturnal melody of nightingales abounds.
In church, the people chorus out their Sion song,
their hundred-folded alleluia sounds.
Tado, our father, may heavenly Easter joy
gather you to the threshold of the light.

(translation from the Irish, Caitlin Matthew

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 11:18 PM

So what's the thought?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 11:21 PM

Beautiful, Peg. I love the imagery, esp. the "wandering tribes of bees."

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: MMario
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 08:55 AM

Lovely Peg, thank you!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peg
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 10:41 AM

the "thought" was my impulse to post it for what people might derive from it; perhaps I should have titled it "Poem for the Day"?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 10:45 AM

Ah, Peg, G#1 is just shite-stirring...pay no attention. It conjured up beautiful thoughts for those not bound by the narrow confines of their own making.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,Animaterraatwork
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 11:26 AM

Thanks for the lovely thought. Spring is finally here, and the Light is shining brightly!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: mousethief
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 11:28 AM

Nice poem!

Alex

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 03:27 PM

Correction Peg, that's translated from the original Latin, (c 850-880 CE) which you can hear at www.richmond.edu/~wstevens/latin202/202txts00.html

About the same time as that above is one from Gaelic.

May-time, fair season,
perfect in its aspect then;
blackbirds sing a song,
if there be a scanty beam of day.

The hardy, busy cuckoo calls,
welcome noble summer!
It calms the bitterness of bad weather,
the branching wood is a prickly hedge.

Summer brings low the little stream,
the swift herd makes for the water,
the long hair of the heather spreads out,
the weak white cotton-grass flourishes.

The smooth sea flows,
season when the ocean falls asleep;
flowers cover the world.

Bees, whose strength is small,
carry with their feet a load reaped from the flowers;
the mountain allures the cattle,
the ant makes a rich meal.

The harp of the wood plays melody,
its music brings erfect peace;
colour has settled on every hill,
haze on the lake of full water.

The corcrake clacks, a strenuous bard;
the high pure waterfall sings a greeting to the warm pool;
rustling to the rushes has come.

Light swallows dart on high,
brisk music encircles the hill,
tender rich fruits bud.

The hardy cuckoo sings,
the speckled fish leaps,
mighty is the swift warrior. [How did he get in there?

The vigour of men flourishes,
the glory of great hills is unspoiled;
every wood is fair from crest to ground,
fair each great goodly field.

Delightful is the season's splendour,
winter's rough wind has gone;
bright is every fertile wood,
a joyful peace is summer.

A flock of settles,
the green field re-echoes,
where there is a brisk bright stream.

A mad ardour upon you to race horses,
where the serried host is ranged around;
very splendid is the bounty of the cattle-pond,
the iris is gold because of it.

A timid persistent frail creature sings at the top of his voice,
the lark chants a clear tale-
excellent May-time of calm aspect.

Irish- author unknown- ninth-tenth century

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 09:03 PM

Whose confines are narrow kat?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peg
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 10:00 PM

Guest; since I know Caitlin Matthews as one who translates poetry from the IRISH, I did not assume this was originally (or only) written in Latin...

Why not offer your poem as a thought for the day at some point? It's lovely.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 02:21 AM

You've already got all of it, that I know of, anyhow.

Before Guttenberg invented printing, clerics didn't write in a language that any of their flock could understand, they used Latin. Have the masses be able to read and understand the Bible? - unthinkable! Printing of the Koran is actually fairly recent.

I'm still waiting for kat to explain his/her concept of my narrow confines. Since I can only write in English my reputation in an area of humanities is limited to English speaking countries, but English is the language of science, and there my reputation was made long ago and remains world wide (since I'm only 70 years old, and I've never completely retired, and am currently working on an optical system design for a government chemical-physics research lab).

Optical system design isn't my real specialty, but found out this morning from a new physics prof. at Ohio State Univ. (new there, on the web she's still listed as being in Geissen, Germany) that their design at Geissen for the system followed my published equations, and pretty closely the blue prints of my earlier one. I sent her new equations I derived about two weeks ago that greatly simplify the system design. All about etendue matching in FTS instruments.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peg
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 10:05 AM

Well thanks for the curriculum vitae...

I think kat meant she was not sure why you felt compelled to ask "so where's the thought?" since it would appear to most that the poem and the impulse to post it WAS the thought...I don;t think she was questioning your "reputation."

If you think a thought of the day should be offered in a particular manner, you should do it yourself. Be prepared for guests to question it though.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 10:34 AM

I am in favour of printing, but... Nobody needed to print the Koran because most people who were interested learned it by heart, became hafiz. There are any number of clerics who complained that printing the Koran would lead to a decline in understanding, and an increase in superficiality. Are we better off with people whose version of learning is skimming, and who never chew anything over hundreds of times to get the sense of it? Oh, probably. Still. I have many students who think they know a great deal, but really just have information. The wise elders I used to study with all had vast amounts of literature memorized. They have gone with the wind, and I have not exactly noticed that they are being replaced, and that wisdom is on the increase. Lots of information out there though.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 11:37 AM

I wouldn't have known much of anything of the Koran if it hadn't been printed. I heartily reccommend it to all Christians to see how close their beliefs are to those of Muslims.

The only really odd thing in the Koran that I've seen is that old "Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" myth that Mohamed (or whoever actually compiled the Koran) seems to have taken to be factual.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: GUEST,#1
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 09:02 AM

Peg, it wasn't a curriculum vitale. I was merely pointing out how ridiculous katlaughing's statement was.

The first line at the top of this Forum still says 'a magazine devoted to blues and folk music'. I feel completely justified in trying to ruin any thread that doesn't comform, even in a broad interpretation, to that stated purpose. I can't see that 'thoughts' or 'poems for the day' are the least bit relevant to the stated purpose of this Forum.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Peg
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 09:35 AM

AH; now we're getting it. Thanks so much for your input.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day April 15, 2001
From: Robo
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 12:24 AM

Aye, the 15th of April . . . Lincoln dies . . . the Titanic sinks . . . and Rob-o concludes the first day of the rest of his life.

--Me