mlatu ckule

mend the facile JAPE
before a crowd's AHEM
pyramid PERU

i ride on wild EMUS
taunt feculent LOUT
myself no mean OGRE

carol of UREA
silent glistening TEAL
missed mosquito DRAT

dancing on a tightROPE
this stunt never APED
in any YouTube TEDS

socket saturation

(via)

"Cassini"

we cry
for a season
which then will destroy
we cry
in the blithe bitter day
our home & our prison
we cry

for a season

(in Lojban:

MI'A KRIXA
CA LE CITSI
.IBABO SELSPO
.I KRIXA
CA LE SAMPU JE KURKI
DONRI
POI ZDANI JE SE RINJU
MI'A .I CITSI
KRIXA )

"Megapolisomancy is, in short, the art of seeing and changing the future by gaining an understanding of cities."

owl fend askance

(vamana, via ancient ufo dot org)

"97. To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,--
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few."

Emily Dickinson

MU'E FINTI LO SASFLO .IJO ZASTI
FA SU'O VOMEI
SE XRULA .E SU'O BIFCE

.E SU'O ZA'I SANJYSNE
.I RI BANZU VA'O LENU
BIFCYCAU

('The act-of-creating a grass-field if-&-only-if there exists/ at-least-one fourfold/ flowering-plant, at-least-one bee,// & at-least-one state-of conscious-dreaming./ The latter suffices under-the-conditions-of beelessness.')

"It's a curse, the writing impulse, if it gets you early, and if it doesn't get you early it isn't a writing impulse." --Howard Jacobson

NA BANLI VAMJI .I
KO’A GOI LE ROZGU
PENDO BE MI CUSKU
DI’E .ITU’E CERNI
JBENA .I LE CTEJAU
MI TOLDAPMA .I XULPRA
.I GLEKYCAI JE NELCI
.I SOLRI GUSNI .IBABO
TOLCITNO VI LE VANCI

.ISENI’INAI CA
ZE’UPU NA MELBYMAU
RULPURDI ZASTI TU’U

.I NA BANLI VAMJI .I
KO’A CUSKU DI’E
.ITU’E KO SISKU CO RINKA
LENU MI STEDU NITCARNA
.I SE’O CA’A FARLU
.I .IA FARLU .I CINMO
CO PAVYSEI .I BAZI
MROBI’O .I CO’A CLIVA
LE RULPURDI TU’U

NA BANLI VAMJI .I TO’U
KO’A CERNI MROBI’O
.I CARMI GUSNI LUNRA
.IJE MI CAPU SENVA
LEDU’U LEKO’A TRAJI
JE LUNBE PRUXYSE’I
RU’I DANSU GA’UVU
LEI DILNU GI’E CISMA

NI’O TI’E ZO’E
KRICI .INI’INAIBO
BA’E MI PACNA GI’A
NA SE CANLU .UOCAI

.I NA BANLI VAMJI .I
KO’A DI’U CUSKU

   My good friend the Rose

It’s little enough to win
And my good friend the Rose
This morning said to me
With sunrise I was born
To baptize in its tears
I followed into bloom
Knew joy & love’s delight
In the full rays of the sun
Then twilight made me close
At dusk my time was done

Awhile I was so fair
Among the rest most fair
Of those the garden grew

It’s little enough to win
And my good friend the Rose
This morning said to me
Go question for the cause
That I should hang my head
I feel that I shall fall
I fear that I shall fail
My heart is almost bare
I’ve one foot toward my doom
Already I am less

A day ago we loved
And I will taste its dust
Forevermore & soon

It’s little enough to win
And my good friend the Rose
This morning’s turned to black
The moon so bright reveals
My love in shroud I dreamed
I saw the Rose in bloom
Dazzling & alone
A spirit born to dance
Far above the clouds
And smiling smiling smiling

Let those believe who may
But I must dwell in hope
Without it I’m no more

It’s little enough to win
And my good friend the Rose
The day before had said...

two poems translated

'All is laughter, all is dust, all is nothing,
for all that is cometh from unreason.' --Glycon X.125 in the Greek Anthology (tr Paten)

Returning to this from my blog. How would it look in Lojban?

CMILYKAI JE PULCYKAI FA RODA
.IJE TRAJYTOLSMU
.INI'IBO RO ZASTI
CAPU SE KRASI LO KALSA

(My English version: Laughter, dust, & nothingness are all/ we know, since from Unreason we did fall.)

'This body,
grown fragile, floating,
a reed cut from its roots...
if a stream would ask me
to follow, I'd go, I think.'

--Ono no Komachi (tr Hirshfield & Aratani)

FRILI SE PORPI
XADNI JEKE SE KATNA
GENJA .I FULTA
.I GANAI PA RI'ECMA
CU RETSKU MI GI KANKLA

In my English:

Spun glass, my body
hovers, cut off at the roots;
if any trickle
were to ask me to follow
i'd be the last to decline.

a non-Quranic aside

In Lojban a gismu can have one, two, three, four, or five sumti, or arguments; like the variables of a mathematical function. I have long thought to separate out "conjugations" or 'the five classifying colors' LE MU TE KLESI SKARI as follows: 1 sumti = NARJU XARJU (Orange Pig); 2 sumti = GRUSI GUNSE (Gray Goose); 3 sumti = CRINO CINFO (Green Lion); 4 sumti = BLABI SMANI (White Monkey); and 5 sumti = NUKNI JUKNI (Magenta Spider).

Gismu for each of these could be printed in the appropriate color. (I would do my Quran translation that way--perhaps on buff paper.) --As an additional flourish, i can imagine poets working to organize their colors in patterns, somewhat in the manner of Chinese versification...