Recently I came across an interesting exercise where you had to write a high school report card for famous people real or imagined and the writer gave 2 examples.
Todesfuge really creeped me out and I just could not work out why. I mean obviously the images were extremely disturbing and based on fact. Celan had been in one of the camps himself But that does not explain everything
When I finally realized what it was - it seemed so bleeding obvious
This pretty famous and very old poem from Robert Louis Stevenson sort of gives the game away
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches; And charging along like troops in a battle, All through the meadows the horses and cattle: All of the sights of the hill and the plain Fly as thick as driving rain; And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles, All by himself and gathering brambles; Here is a tramp who stands and gazes; And there is the green for stringing the daisies! Here is a cart run away in the road Lumping along with man and load; And here is a mill and there is a river: Each a glimpse and gone for ever!
Now if this poem were about a snail, it just wouldn't be quite the same ;)
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branchandroot
Games without Frontiers
Date: 2020-10-27 01:35 pm (UTC)Todesfuge really creeped me out and I just could not work out why. I mean obviously the images were extremely disturbing and based on fact. Celan had been in one of the camps himself
But that does not explain everything
When I finally realized what it was - it seemed so bleeding obvious
This pretty famous and very old poem from Robert Louis Stevenson sort of gives the game away
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!
Now if this poem were about a snail, it just wouldn't be quite the same ;)