Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	4-Feb-06/7:50 AM
Okay, I've looked around, scratched my head. Are we on a ballfield?
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	4-Feb-06/7:26 AM
A good woman admits her mistakes. "She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue." Proverbs 31:26 NIV. Most of what I've heard you say is like that.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:56 PM
Sorry, your comment got stuck as I was revising mine. I said that the NIV and the NAS claim to translate from the best manuscripts. Statements to this effect are in their introductioins. They claim to have used the best available Hebrew and Greek texts, not the King James. I cannot verify or deny these claims. I have read the gospels of Thomas or Mary Magdalene, and have browsed the Jerusalem Bible. It's been awhile but I found them interesting.
Re: Exodus of Babylon by SupremeDreamer	3-Feb-06/7:40 PM
This sounds like some folks' version of Christianity. If you mean it as satire on that, then 10. Since I'm unsure, 7
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:32 PM
Yes, I tend to go with the NIV or the NAS because they claim to follow the best manuscripts and to translate without added or subtracted dogma. Still I realize many uncertainties exist as to how closely even these match the writers' originals, all of which are lost.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:19 PM
Yes, and thanks for the suggestion.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:13 PM
Then you disagree with the English translations in common use?
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:11 PM
Yes, I've had enough flak to know I should change that. My father was a gardener, and when he said "rose" he meant "rose bush, look out for thorns."
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/7:03 PM
Whoever wrote it claims to be the son of David and a king in Jeruselem. Only Solomon fits. I think it's a beautifully written book, which Szymborska apparently fails to appreciate as shown by making light of "Nothing is new under the sun." I don't think the writer meant that entirely literly. The book contains many images, and I think this one expresses his unhappy conclusion that, even after gaining all he strove for, happiness still eludes. He tries to show that following God's righteousness is the only hope for happiness, but I sense that even in that he finds less than he hoped for. In a sense, I think he really means that nothing is new, or can be new in the future. Of course, that's easy to argue against, but I think he felt that at some level that it's true. That's worth thinking about, I think.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/3:34 PM
The book was written by a son of David who was king in Jeruselem. Whatever. And the writer really meant that nothing is new! And, oh yes, he shows no sign of despondency.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/3:25 PM
Of course!
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/3:13 PM
And I do insist. It's a stretch - giving birth. Maybe that's why we're better at it.
Re: Coney Island Fall by ecargo	3-Feb-06/3:10 PM
We couldn't ride the Cyclone even at Christmastime a couple of years ago. Couldn't even buy a dog. Much less in February.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/3:02 PM
Szymborska must have realized that Solomon, who claims to have written "The Preacher," Ecclesiastes, was distraught over meaninglessness, and that he said, "nothing is new under the sun" as an exaggeration, meaning that nothing is worthwhile. I suppose it’s okay to use the Bible to illustrate points other than the authors’ meaning; I’ve done it too. I think the point would have sounded more credible if some nod to the author’s probable meaning had been given.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/2:56 PM
If you quote a poem like this, which lacks punctuation, and string lines together, it's appropriate to insert commas at line ends. In this case, it changed the meaning somewhat. Is that why they believe a magic skull?
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/1:15 PM
I cannot believe that someone who can be as distantly vague in his imagery as you ar sometimes, could not take "rose" as the thorn of a rose stem. Are you being impish? Sorry not to be mysterious enough for you. The whole female mystique business escapes me. We're not nearly as mysterious as men.
Re: Whales in Gastineau Channel by zodiac	3-Feb-06/10:31 AM
"breaches" as in breaches the water, is an intolerable twist, I'm afaid. And you do need something before "Nikons" for grammar's sake or as your gramma must have said said. I suppose "purchase" means something in this context. And "yen" as in yearning is old usage misplaced in the new. And Earth's kiss, well, you've been in water and air up to now, why enter the earth?
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/10:20 AM
Grammetically, it should be, "as lilies win bees," but I liked it better this way. Thanks.
Re: a comment on A Walk in the Park by Dovina	3-Feb-06/10:18 AM
How did you feel, then, having gotten over "it", when your skirt fanned out, as everyone's does sometimes?
Re: a comment on Nomads by amanda_dcosta	3-Feb-06/7:16 AM
Line 2 has 8 beats. In the original it had the prescribed 7. "Whither" breaks the voice, I think.