The future is Utopia _and_ Dystopia

Many features of Renaissance Utopias are reused, more or less parodied, by HP Lovecraft in his short novel At the Mountains of Madness. The dystopian side of it lies in the fact that the superior civilization described in this case belongs to alien entities who conquered Earth some 1,000 millions years ago and, incidentally, did create the first human beings as their food and pastime. But, after all, "Scientists to the last—what had they done that we would not have done in their place? God, what intelligence and persistence! . . .  Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star-spawn—whatever they had been, they were men!" No, the true problem is that other cosmic forces finally succeeded in destroying them, and are ready to destroy us.

By the way, have a Happy New Year!

On Christ's Native-E.T.

And this is the interpretation of the picture provided by Mauricio Yushin Marassi of the Italian Zen community La Stella del Mattino ("The Morning Star," see website):

The space full of birds of prey, while Man is in a beam of light on a robotized earth. . .  as if Man were good, and evil "somewhere else."

A great jump forward

In his illustrations for Orlando Furioso, Fabrizio Clerici (see) seems to represent Rodomonte as what we would call an X-Man, a mutant; at least, he makes Rodomonte's body merge biologically with his armor, that is made with the skin of a dragon. This recolored version simply highlights the concept.

What better wish for the new year than to admire a genius being futuristically reinterpreted by another genius? May the Renaissance spur us to a true renaissance.
Have a great 2017!

. . . But, wait, earlier than that, there will appear a Christmas greeting card on December 25.

Fantastic Design and Where to Find It

click to enlarge

Crazy ornaments, both small for the tables and big for the buildings, were a must-have to Renaissance nobles; a task with which great artists were entrusted. All sorts of things could be assembled to make pots, etc., from mold copies of eagle claws to coconuts being labeled as "fossils" to cameos with Biblical or mythological or erotic scenes. The outcome would turn out either refined or kitsch.

An amazing set of modern objects in that line, especially the refined side, can be seen in the book: Cristina Morozzi (ed.), Terrific Design, Milan (Italy): 24 Ore Cultura, 2014, pages 242, euros 45, from which the items in the collage above have been taken. With many thanks to Libreria Bardamù, Perugia.

The Spy Who Came in from the Heat (5)

[76.1 - 77.4]

Poi che s'avide che non può dar crollo,
Svelle la chioma e la sua nera barba,
Come fa de la menta o del serpollo
Il villan, che cogliendo egli dibarba.
Alfin premendo l'una mano al collo,
Che parea tinto dove nacque Iarba,
Gridò: - Confessa, mentitor fallace,
Il vero a me, se vita brami e pace.

Di' chi sei, donde vieni, ov'era dritto
Dinanzi il tuo corso errante e fuggitivo.
E non mentir, che non sarai trafitto,
E quinci partirai satollo e vivo -.

When he(*) saw that the man could not move, (**)
He tore off his hair and his black beard,
As with a plant of mint or wild thyme
A farmer does when he uproots them.
Then pressing one hand against his neck,
That looked as dark as in Iarbas' birthplace, (***)
Vafrino cried, "Treacherous liar, confess
The truth now, if you love life and peace!
Who are you, whence do you come, and where
Did your wandering, fleeing route lead?
Do not lie, for you will not be slain,
Yeah, you will leave sated and alive."

(*) Vafrino
(**) The Italian phrasing echoes Dante, Inferno 25: 9.
(***) Iarbas was a North African king mentioned in the Iliad. The definition of Africa as "the land of Iarbas" comes from Dante, Purgatorio 31: 72, where Iarba already rhymed with barba (beard) and dibarba (uproots), but here Dante's "strong oaks" are replaced with humble herbs. In the third line, the unusual form serpollo instead of serpillo (wild thyme) is due to the needs of rhyming. Tasso's love for plants and their uses emerges in his contemporary long poem Il Mondo Creato.

Christmas break: The GC posts will restart on January 7.

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 344-404

by ilT + Selkis

All the more so with Man:

corporations controlling

humble people heavily

drink Dracula-wise

the blood of buyers.

Is a soul stimulated

[350] greedily towards gold

different in depth from

Leviathan that hunts

thousands of tiny fish

to fill its own flesh?

New blasphemous Ahabs

dispossess the poor and—

you enjoy the exile’s

goods, you now gnaw

old spoils shamelessly

[360] adding to you account

such past usurpation

and proving a pig worse

than the primal pig.

Therefore mind the doom

that falls on the fish

preying on its peers:

hook or net or bow-net.

You won’t avoid after

so many misdeeds

[370] a punishment proper

that looms like a lasso.

Of a small crustacean

learn the subtle traps

and be free from fraud:

The crab craves for

the shell’s sweet pulp

a very precious prey

since a hard defense

was given her by God

[380] with vigorous valves

that shut super-strongly

and neutralize nippers.

But if the sea’s smooth

in sunny serene weather

the relaxing rays are

loved by the she-shell

who opens up, and lo!

he throws a stone inside

and makes her harmless

[390] so shrewdness wins

where weakness cannot.

“Odi malizia” of a man

unjust and unrefined

silently fraudulent!

If you aim at the art

of acquiring, avoid

bothering your brother.

Shun damned souls

be content with things

[400] provided by poverty

without humiliating honors

or pompous pride:

Master your own mind

that’s more than America.

(Christmas break: to be continued on Jan. 8)

The Spy Who Came in from the Heat (4)

[16: 75]

Ma di creder Vafrino anco s'infinge,
Sin ch'ebro il vede e di parlar già stanco,
E sovra l'herba, che l'humor dipinge,
Posare il capo non ch'il tergo o il fianco,
E chiuder gli occhi gravi: allhor gli scinge
La spada, che pendeva al lato manco,
E mentre il sonno più l'affrena e lega,
Egli co 'l proprio cinto anco il rilega.

But Vafrino makes as if he believed him,
Until he sees him drunk and tired of talking;
On the grass -- red with wine -- the man finally
Lays his head, not only his back and hips,
And shuts his drowsy eyes. Vafrino unfastens
The man's sword, that hung on his left side, 
And when sleep dominates him wholly,
Ties him strongly by using his own belt. (*)

(*) In the final printed version, the text is slightly different, and specifies that Vafrino ties the man by using "his own and other belts," probably because one belt would not suffice. At the same time, it is not clear whence these other belts come.
The man, as it has become clear by now, is a Muslim spy -- though a very bad Muslim (he drinks a lot of wine) and a very bad spy! A poor devil, after all. His story will presently confirm the impression.

Fab and Furious

British knights look,
amazed, at the Hippogriff

The Battle of Lampedusa
(3 Christians vs. 3 Muslims)

The search for the [almost] complete catalog of Fabrizio Clerici's illustrations for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso has proved successful, at last! The book, published in 1981 after an exhibition in Bologna (Italy), includes 158 ink and watercolor pictures made in 1964-67, that cover basically the whole poem while summarizing the whole of Clerici's career. The references to art history and other literary sources also are many, but the main influences apparently come from the drawings -- not the paintings -- by Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Füssli/Fuseli, possibly Picasso too (especially the Vollard Suite), as well as comics, children's books, pulp novels, and illustrated magazines.

This album can be listed, imho, among the greatest achievements in the history of illustration, together with William Blake's works for Paradise Lost, Salvador Dali's for Don Quixote, Gustave Dore's for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Renato Guttuso's for Les Misérables, Beppe Madaudo's for the Divine Comedy.

A Tasso review even on local press :-)

from Il Corriere di Saluzzo
click to enlarge

The Spy Who Came in from the Heat (3)

[16: 73]

Greco d'esser dicea, che già molti anni
Guerreggiato ha co' Franchi in Asia, e vinto;
E i rischi de la guerra, e i lunghi affanni,
Dal primo egli narrava all'anno quinto.
Guata Vafrino il viso, i modi e i panni,
Né presta intera fede al parlar finto;
E mentre l'un contrario e l'altro accoppia,
S'accorge ben che quella fraude è doppia.

A Greek, he said he was; who many years now
Had fought with the Franks in Asia, (*) and won;
And the perils of war and wearing times
He recounted, from year one to the fifth.
Vafrino inspects his face, manners, clothes, (**)
And does not believe his false words at all,
But by comparing one side and its contrary (***)
He well understands there's a double fraud.

(*) Asia Minor, current Turkey; the self-styled Byzantine soldier says he fought against the Muslims in his own country when the Crusaders, called collectively "Franks," passed through it coming from Western Europe.
(**) The same method that will be adopted by Sherlock Holmes.
(***) Echoing Dante, Purgatorio 16: 57.

Learning Latin with the Renaissance method

There is a place where reading and speaking Latin and Greek is taught as it was in the Renaissance: through music! An alternative, exciting, easy, and working method. It is the international Accademia Vivarium Novum (website), whose current headquarters is in the wonderful Falconieri Villa in Frascati, Italy, near Rome. The building dates back to the 16th century, although it has been reworked in the following centuries, as usual.

If you happen to visit it, you may feel thrilled and moved by listening to a girl who sings Dido's last words in the Aeneid according to a melody that is very likely to match the original Latin music. Or, you may have a Mexican student, a discipulus de Nova Hispania as a tour guide, who tells you about the place's history in Latin. Well, tour guides are called ciceroni in Italian, after the name of the Roman orator and philosopher whose Villa lay in the very neighborhood of the Falconieris'.

The founder of Vivarium Novum, Luigi Miraglia, invested all of his (noteworthy) financial means and his (noteworthy) talents to start this project. Erchou kai ide!

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 271-343

by Selkis + ilT

But the feeble fisher

by the Mar Tirreno

or Adriatic, Aegean

Caspian, Euxinus Sea

or Red Sea or Ocean

in northern Europe

and islands and India—

who grew hoary on

the most solitary sands

[280] roving on the rocks

with his hook and net—

could he ever recount

the thousands of types

of the slippery progeny

the numberless amount

of scaly ways of life

all around Arda?

Some species in Egypt

others in the Eritrean Sea

[290] or Caspian or Persian

or at Atlas’ slopes

or at Indus’ mouth

may appear like aliens

or perplexing pilgrims.

How many are made by

the Ocean beneath Ursa

or on the opposite side

that resemble monsters!

But they all developed

[300] from the one Voice

who promoted plurality.

Some initially lay eggs

though without brooding

nor composing a nest

not fishing for food

but the water welcomes

and fortifies fries.

Some are viviparous:

differently from mules

[310] and many hybrid birds

their purest progeny

spreads forever fertile

through lawful loves.

Rules are rules: Although

morays mate with snakes,

the latter leaves its poison

otherwise the former flees.

No family of fish has

teeth in one sole section

[320] of their poor palates

like goats and oxen;

no fish—many think—

ruminates replete,

except for scarus.

They all show saw-

like teeth in two rows

and different diets:

slime or fungi or algae

sea or swamp weeds

[330] or by the riverbeds.

Some believe in the bait

put by human hands,

fond of man’s food—

of lethal hidden hooks.

Most of them however

destroy one another:

To be small is to be meal.

But often opportunely

the proud predator will

[340] find a bigger fiend

try to vanish in vain

and be inexorably eaten,

two titbits in one belly.

(to be continued on Dec. 18)

Tasso Art: Edoardo Matania

Mission: Not Impossible

Erminia's self-investiture
[Nicaea's, in G. Conquistata]

Crusaders were not saints

The illustrations of Edoardo Matania for Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) were first published in 1895, not by chance in the 300th anniversary of Tasso's death. Though less original and powerful than Gustave Doré, Matania was more technically skilled, and his engravings stand out for their style, refinement, and historical accuracy.

Noticeably, here the 11th century Crusaders are not armored like Renaissance knights. As for the clothing and architecture in Muslim countries, in European art history there had developed a true mania during the 19th century, see Eugène Delacroix.

The Spy Who Came in from the Heat (2)

During a stop in his journey, the Christian spy Vafrino meets a strange guy.

[16: 70]

Quindi mentre prendea posa e restauro,
Meschiando il vin di Creta e l'onda fresca
E, sibilar udendo il pino e 'l lauro,
Dava al corpo digiuno humore ed esca,
Vi giunse huom di color sembiante al mauro,
A cui par che 'l vïaggio homai incresca;
Ma l'habito avea greco e l'idïoma,
E come greco lunga e culta chioma.

While he here took a break and refreshment,
Blending the wine of Crete with fresh water (*)
And, listening to pines and laurels that whistled, (**)
He gave his body something to eat and drink,
There came a man whose skin was like the Moors',
Apparently tired of his own long travel;
But Greek were his garments and language,
And his hair, long and combed as the Greeks have. (***)

(*) In past times, wine was quite thick, and had to be watered down before drinking it. Greek wines were renowned, and Tasso was a connoisseur.
(**) A Tassean touch in the landscape.
(***) What have today become folkloric costumes were the actual garments of peoples. "Greek" here means "from the Byzantine Empire."

If Donald Trump could see this!

click to enlarge

In this world map of 1548, the territory of the current USA is shown as an extension of China, and honorably so.

The map, drawn by Iacopo Gastaldi, was included in an edition of Ptolemy's Geography printed in Venice, the publisher G. B. Pederzano. Source: Isabella Pezzini (ed.), Exploratorium. Cose dell'altro mondo, Milan (Italy): Electa, 1991, pages 228, full of pictures. The very interesting essays in the book deal with the time period between the late Middle Ages and the 19th century, with the Renaissance obviously as the key focus. Cose dell'altro mondo literally means "things of the other world," but it is a common phrase referring to something unexpected and shocking.

The Spy Who Came in from the Heat (1)

The Crusaders decide to send a spy to the Muslim camp: Vafrino, a squire of Tancred.
The episode was set in another section in Gerusalemme Liberata (cantos 18-19), and was quite different in its developments. In both versions, however, Vafrino starts by disguising himself as a Muslim, or rather, as Arabs often appear in modern children's books, stickers and comics.

As it can be inferred from other episodes in the Jerusalem-poems as well as from other works by Tasso, he loved detective stories. The major example is in Gerusalemme Liberata, canto 8, when false clues make some Crusaders believe that the knight Rinaldo has been murdered by order of no less than Godfrey of Bouillon. The parallel episode in the Conquistata (where Rinaldo has been changed into Riccardo) has, unfortunately, not been dealt with in our posts because it belongs to the part missing in the manuscript.


[16: 67.5 - 68.8]

Così parla Vafrino, e non trattiensi,
Ma cangia in lunga vesta il suo farsetto
E scopre ignudo il nero collo, e prende
Sottili e 'ntorno al capo attorte bende.

La faretra s'adatta e l'arco siro,
E barbarico sembra ogni suo gesto.
Maravigliosi ragionar l'udîro,
E 'n sì diverse lingue esser sì presto
Ch'eggittio in Menfi o pur fenice in Tiro
L'havria creduto e quel popolo e questo.
Egli se 'n va sovra un destrier ch'à pena
Segna correndo la più molle arena.

So speaks Vafrino, then does not tarry, and
His doublet replaces with a long garment;
He shows a black neck naked, then wears
A long, thin cloth all around his head;
Arranges a quiver, a Syrian bow,
All his gestures now recall the heathens'.
All were amazed while listening to him,
So skilled in so many different languages
That he could have passed for an Egyptian
In Memphis, a Phoenician in Tyre.
He goes, riding a horse who hardly leaves
A print on the finest sand by galloping.

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 202-270

Dolphins talk as have

both blood and lung

but no tongue to

shape their sounds.

There snort in sleeping

some slippery fish or

armored arachnids too,

even without eyelids

[210] to be lowered on

their tired sight;

but their relaxed rest

with swinging tails

informs the fisher

who won’t harpoon

but can catch them

and regularly ransacks

sea rocks and sands

to seize the specimens

[220] secretly sleeping.

Using sharpened iron

Sparus, Perca are caught:

deep in their Dormitio

they will hardly wake up,

sleep passes into death

from slight to endless sleep

almost inadvertently.

Dolphins and tremendous

whales while sleeping

[230] set on the surface

their spouting spiracles

and fluctuate on fins.

At dead of night rather

than any other time fish

sleep—easy in summertime—

when herds are reared

by Proteus in his ponds:

Pistrices and sharks

whose bed is weeds

[240] snore sonorously

with their chef-herd

who counted sea sheep.

But old fables fit better

somewhere else. I won’t

argue about Arion who

was helped by a dolphin;

nor deal with the love of

a bottle-nose for a boy

whose death destroyed it

[250] and defeated by grief

it passed away on sand.

If we refuse faith to

such tales, let us trust

Natural History where

piety is pedagogically

foretasted by fish.

Dolphins have udders

to breast-feed babies,

their wombs welcome back

[260] a son who seeks

shelter there when the sea

is darn dangerous.

Growing up sub gurgite

the son learns to swim

not afraid of foam

taught by his daddy

the signal of sailors,

so that seamen foresee

the War of the Winds

[270] and quit their cruise.

(to be continued on Dec. 11)

Yep!

The ancestor of NSA (5)

[16: 62, Godfrey speaks]

Scenderan (se fia d'uopo) incontra gli empi
Angeli amici da' stellanti chiostri,
A' quai non son l'hore prescritte o i tempi,
Com' a noi tutti et a' nemici nostri.
Liberarem la città sacra e i tempi,
E cadranno d'Egitto i feri mostri;
E fia di varie genti e d'una terra
Vittoria integra in glorïosa guerra.

"Against the impious, if needed, there will
Come friendly angels from the starry courts(*) --
To whom hours and times are not prescribed
As they are to us all and our enemies. (**)
We will free the Holy City and temples,
And the fierce monsters of Egypt (***) will fall;
And out of many peoples and one land
Full victory will rise in a glorious war."

(*) Literally "cloisters," a metaphor often used by Tasso.
(**) The angels will be able to intervene at any time, and immediately so, not needing to prepare equipments, etc. The predicament of humans is hard and tiring, to whatever religion they belong.
(***) The umbrella concept of "paganism" makes Tasso shamelessly mix up Islam and the religion of Ancient Egypt. He deals more diffusely with the monsters/gods of Egypt in his long poem Il Mondo Creato, on which he was working at the same time as he edited the Jerusalem-poem. This octave, anyway, provides a fine example of Baroque imagery and rhetoric.

The 7 Days of CryAction: The third review

The ancestor of NSA (4)

Jerusalem in Gustave Dore's illustrations
for Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso

Godfrey of Bouillon comments on the intercepted message with his knights.

[16: 61]

Ma qual d'aquila volo, o di colomba,
Veloce è come la celeste aita?
Qui dove hebbe il Figliol tormenti e tomba
Aspettar noi debbiam vittoria e vita.
Né vi turbi il romor, ch'alto rimbomba,
D'innumerabil turba o d'infinita:
Ché nostre fian le lor sì care salme,
E cresceranno a voi trïonfi e palme.

"But what flight of an eagle or a dove 
Is so rapid as the heavenly help?
Here, where the Son(*) had sufferings and grave,
We must expect both victory and life.
Don't be afraid of the resounding noise
Of their countless, even endless army:
Ours will be, in the end, their dearest spoils, (**)
Your triumphs and trophies will keep increasing."

(*) "Jesus" in the final printed version. The octave had undergone a thorough editing already in the manuscript. "Life" in the following line does not only refer to the Christian knights' success in the war but also to their eternal reward in heaven. And once in a while, the reason of the whole crusade is recalled: the reconquest of the Holy Sepulcher.
(**) The city of Jerusalem with its holy places.

Clerici vagantes

From left: Astolfo, Saint John,
the magic shield, and the Hippogriff

Pope Alexander VI
(Rodrigo Borgia)

One of the most interesting artists who illustrated some of the 'greatest hits' of the Renaissance was Fabrizio Clerici (1913-1993). Usually considered the main exponent of Italian Surrealism, he in fact had only some points in common with that movement. A very cultured man, an old-fashioned aristocrat as well as an independent and revolutionary artist -- snubbed by the leading official criticism both during and after the Fascist Era -- Clerici was therefore a Renaissance personage himself, in a way. He worked nonetheless as a painter, illustrator, and set designer up until his last days, thanks to a sufficient number of people all over the world who believed in his talent. He illustrated Leonardo Da Vinci's animal tales in 1945, The Prince by Machiavelli in 1961, and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso in 1965, always skipping commonplace and offering powerful, intelligent, experimental and multidisciplinary versions of the texts.

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 143-201

by ilT + Selkis
from the "DantEsq." set

Speechless species

and selfish are fish

impossible pets to be

carefully cuddled,

only occasionally

endowed with some

unusual sounds or

[150] even with voice

or a clumsy language

to express experiences.

Too slow is their spirit

unable is their lung

wet is their windpipe,

their speech is shaped

solely in their throat:

tongue and teeth are

needed, otherwise no

[160] concept can come.

Otherwise sounds shatter

as in the bees’ band

wound round their waists

that spoils the spirit

in Antinfernal anguish.

Other bugs break their

breath in that band

and sing wing-songs

so the forests are full

[170] of cicada jazz swing.

But in the fish family

scaly or crustaceans

some have no sound

some snort or shriek

and the water whirrs;

such concerts caused

the lyre-fish’s fame.

Pecten creaks as well

as the sea swallow,

[180] both fly high above

the waters with wings.

Aspropotamus River

hosts an abyssal boar

and the creek cuckoo

lullabies like the bird

but that’s no true voice

it’s merely the outcome

of grossly shaped gills.

More truly talkative is

[190] the half-fishy frog

the star of swamps

with lung and tongue

perfectly formed:

the former as in a fish

the latter (its clapper)

sticks to its throat.

Frogs frequently hoot

as hot fish also do,

a Cupid call by which

[200] males fu** females

their sweet spouses.

(to be continued on Dec. 4)

Ariosto to Harry Potter to (. . .?)

As underscored in this book, one of the great efforts in the Harry Potter movie effects was to make fantasy creatures as realistic as possible; that meant, not only to base them on living animals in detail, but also to blend the different parts into a plausible whole, and -- even more difficult -- to have them move as naturally as they possibly would do if they existed. And they succeeded.

Once again, as in many other subjects we have been dealing with, the origin of this approach can be traced back to the Renaissance, in both literature and art. It will suffice to compare Dante's Griffin in Purgatorio with Ariosto's Hippogriff in Orlando Furioso: the former is a stiff symbol, the latter acts as a living being, nosediving like a falcon, being taken care of and fed like a horse, etc.
And once again, it must be remarked that the Renaissance culture has survived especially in the people's movies and comics -- which one day will, perhaps, be reevaluated as a precious link between a past glorious Era and a new glorious Era in Europe. Somewhat later than tomorrow morning, anyway.

Jody Revenson, Harry Potter: Il libro delle creature magiche. Creature e piante dei film di Harry Potter [orig.: The Creature Vault], Modena: Panini, 2015, pages 208, euros 39.90

The ancestor of NSA (3)

[16: 57.7 - 58.8]

- A Ducalto salute (era lo scritto)
Manda il grande admiraglio e 'l Re d'Eggitto.

Non sbigottir, signore, resisti e dura
Al terzo dì dopo l'ottavo e 'l quinto;
Ch'io vengo a liberar l'offese mura,
E vedrai tosto il tuo nemico vinto -.
Questo secreto allor breve scrittura
In barbariche note havea distinto:
Dato in custodia al messaggier volante,
Ché tai messi in quel tempo usò 'l Levante.

"To Ducat," the text read, "Egypt's supreme
General and King sends wishes of health. (*)
Do not be afraid, my Lord; resist until
The third day after the eighth and the fifth, (**)
For I will come and free the walls under siege:
You will see your enemies vanquished soon."
This secret message in a brief paper had
Been written in a non-Latin (***) alphabet
Then entrusted to the flying messenger,
As the East used such envoys in that time. (****)

(*) Emir Ducat, a historical personage, was the Muslim King of Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, the Sultan of Egypt did not take part in the First Crusade; but in Gerusalemme Conquistata Tasso turns the crusade into a World War, as we will see. The phrase "sending health" echoes the Latin salutem dicere, whence comes the current Italian verb salutare, "to greet."
(**) A couple of weeks, according to the final printed text. The manuscript had "until the fourth or fifth day," that probably would not have been enough.
(***) The text says "barbaric," to be taken in its original sense. The word distinto, literally "distinct," meaning something clearly written, comes from Dante, Paradiso 18: 96 ("inlaid" in the Longfellow version).
(****) Actually, it was still used in the Renaissance; and it would be up until the early 20th century in the West, too. But both Ariosto and Tasso liked to 'make as if' they were not dealing with their own world and era, though that was obviously their main focus.

The ancestor of NSA (2)

[16: 57.1-6]

La raccoglie Goffredo e la difende,
Poi scorge, in lei guardando, estrania cosa
Ché dal collo, ad un filo avinta, pende
Rinchiusa carta, e sotto l'ale ascosa.
La disserra e dispiega, e bene intende
Quella ch'in sé contien non lunga prosa
. . .

Godfrey takes it in his hands, defends it, (*)
Then he looks and notices something strange
As from its neck, tied to a thread, there hangs
A rolled sheet, hidden under the wings;
Unties, unfolds it. He well understands (**)
The very brief message that it contains:
. . .

(*) The dove that, as recounted in stanza 56 here not reported, had recovered in Godfrey's lap after fleeing from the attack of an eagle.
(**) Apparently, Godfrey also -- as Tancred has proved able to before -- can read Arabic.

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 76-142

by ilT + Selkis

Be it as it may, on Day

Five beasts were born

with non-stupid senses,

each slippery species

[80] of surface or abyss

was made to submit to

the everlasting Voice.

Few phonemes sufficed

to include all kinds:

seals and dolphins who

bear breathing pups,

the fish by which

the fisher’s fingers are

electrically treated,

[90] the egg-laying phyla

the scaled & the scaring

the flying & the floating,

all wrapped in words

and led by law, all

the darting dwellers;

inhabitants of the abyss

conquerors of rocks

swimming in schools

scattered here and there

[100] blue and killer whales

anchovies and plankton.

Some shift the weight

of their bellies on legs

ambivalent amphibians

eating twofold food

unsatisfied with simply

one type of gastronomy:

the deafening frogs

the cyborg-like crabs

[110] crocodiles and river

horses of the Nile whose

waves fertilize fields.

Both big, small, and strange

under one decree they

got manifold lives when

He said, “Let waters whelp”

and the sound showed

that the liquid element

was the fun of fish.

[120] Like the air to avian

or to breathing beasts

is water to sea species

or those living in lakes.

The reason is sensible

as our lung on the left

lies in our bowels

spongy and transparent

like a mirrored image

and acts and contracts

[130] like Los’ bellows

operating oxygen and

comforting corazon

the bank of blood;

the same spirit that

cools our inner oven

validates our voice.

But Physis supplied

gobies just with gills,

by fanning fluxes

[140] they whirl the water

and thus practically

breathe the streams.

(to be continued on Nov. 27)

Macbeth's secret?

Weird Lady Gaga Macbeth
playing Hecat[e]

In Shakespeare's Macbeth we are told all sort of ugly things about the protagonist, but is there one more? In V.1.41 ff. Lady Macbeth in her somnambulism is obsessed with the Macduffs: "The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?" and "There's knocking at the gate," with reference to the morning after the assassination of King Duncan (II.3). Maybe, she had some special reason to hate Lady Macduff, therefore 'encouraging' Macbeth -- off stage -- to have her killed.
In IV.3.57-58 the head of the resistance, Duncan's son Malcolm, describes Macbeth as "luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, / sudden, malicious". . . All adjectives square, except for the first one; when is Macbeth ever shown as lecherous? Or, did he entertain a secret love affair with Lady Macduff? As a matter of fact, in V.7.33 ff. he still feels remorse for her death when he meets Macduff in the final battle: "Of all men else I have avoided thee. / But get thee back; my soul is too much charged / with blood of thine already."
This would cast a special light on Lady Macduff's words in IV.2.41, after her husband's cowardly escape from Fife: "Why, I can buy me twenty [men] at any market," possibly including the best party in the neighborhood.

P.S. In the final lines, the now dead and beheaded Macbeth is defined a "butcher" by Malcolm. He was a butcher from the very beginning (I.2), but then usefully so -- that only makes the difference. Intelligenti pauca.

The ancestor of NSA (1)

[16: 55]

Mentre rinova pur l'ampia cittade
L'arme contra i nemici e le difese,
Vaga colomba per cerulee strade
Vista è passar sovra il signor francese,
Che non dimena i presti vanni, e rade
Quelle liquide vie con l'ali tese;
E già la messaggiera peregrina
Da l'alte nubi a la città s'inchina.

While the great city (*) keeps renewing its
Weapons and defenses against the enemies,
A beautiful (**) dove across light blue roads
Is observed passing over the French lord; (***)
It doesn't flap its swift feathers but touches
The yielding element with wings wide open; (****)
And already the traveling messenger
From the high clouds glides towards the city.

(*) Jerusalem
(**) Vaga is a basically untranslatable poetical adjective that conveys the idea, at the same time, of something beautiful and wandering, especially across the sky. It referred typically to birds and stars. The same ambivalence had peregrina, see line 7, that meant either/both "pilgrim" or/and "rare, precious, wonderful." Here it has been rendered with "traveling."
(***) Godfrey of Bouillon
(****) Imagery coming from Virgil, Aeneid 5; it had already been reused by Dante in Inferno 5: 82-84.

We do need another hero (2)

[16: 53, Peter the Hermit speaks to Godfrey of Bouillon]

- Lascia il pensiero ardito: altri convene
Che de le piante sue la selva spoglie.
Ma chi de l'indegnissime catene
Il bramato guerrero homai discioglie,
Mentre il mar carco e le minute arene
Son di schiere e di navi e d'auree spoglie?
Già il nemico possente a turba afflitta
Più s'avicina, e l'hora è 'n ciel prescritta -.

"Quit this bold project; (*) it will be up
To someone else to clear-cut the forest. (**)
But, who will from that most shameful chains
Free, at last, the warrior we all long for,
Now that the sea and the sands are full
Of armies, and ships, and gold equipments?
Our strong enemies already see our
Vexed crowds -- the predestined time has come!"

(*) To defy the enchanted forest himself.
(**) Richard. Recap: The final victory is destined, of course, to the 'anointed' hero. In Gerusalemme Conquistata, Riccardo (Richard) replaces the Rinaldo of the Liberata. The two share the same adventures, in part, and in part not. Rinaldo had been seduced by the witch Armida and brought from Jerusalem to an island in the Atlantic Ocean; Riccardo has been seduced by the witch/mermaid Armida and brought, more simply, to Lebanon. Peter the Hermit does not know that Richard has already been freed, secretly, by two volunteers, the knights Ruperto (Rupert) and Araldo ( = Harold?). Rupert, as we will discover, happens to be the male lover of Richard, as Patroclus was to Achilles in the Iliad; and this is surely the most significant novelty in the Conquistata, while recalling that Tasso himself was bisexual and mainly homosexual.

The 7 Days of CryAction 5: 1-75

by Selkis + ilT

Songday 5

A citizen of elsewhere

about to go back home

after exile and exertions

and very many years of

an exhausting existence,

to his courteous host is

benevolent before leaving;

so we longing for a flight

sooner or later to heaven

[10] from this opaque orb

of clay and of ocean

which fed and cradled us

for a continued time

we owe words and gifts

of loyalty and love, of

an enduring memory,

to this dear devoted

Mother who welcomed us

adolescents and aged,

[20] to this transporting sea

to this lung-filling air.

Hear! God’s hand after

decorating the cosmos

replenished all places

with happy inhabitants

and left no desolation

and waste anywhere

nor solitary horror.

His brush embellished

[30] the sky with star-flowers

looking like eyes

and Sun and Selene

then added He, “Let air

and liquid now litter

all fliers and finned!”

Abruptly the rivers

and pools got pregnant

and the sea produced

sets of scaly shoals.

[40] Slimy swamps too

missing all motion

and lazily stagnating

were highly honored,

did not remain empty

when God gushed things,

suddenly springing

batrachians croaked

and at once all animals,

to obey his Order

[50] even waters yawped.

Innumerable items

impossible to list

were born and began

to move and make

their Maker’s hymns

humbling Man’s tongue.

Ladies and gentlemen,

something sentient

at last! Plants in fact

[60] by unfolding leaves

have life that feeds

their roots and the rest

but are not anima-ted

they lack intelligence

to organize the objects.

Yet, some suspect that

even barbarous barks

can twist themselves

and stretch their branches

[70] like amorous arms

with a secret passion

slowly but surely, according

to ancient authors.

Let hypotheses hide

in wooden whispers. 

(to be continued on Nov. 20)

We do need another hero (1)

[16: 52]

Così dice egli, e 'l sommo duce ondeggia
In gran tempesta de' pensieri intanto;
Pensa s'egli medesmo andar là deggia
(Ché tal lo stima) a ritentar l'incanto,
O se pur di materia altra proveggia,
Lontana più, ma non difficil tanto.
Ma 'l pio romito dal pensiero profondo
Il rappella, ch'al core è grave pondo:
. . .

So he(*) speaks, and the supreme chief meanwhile
Wavers in the midst of a storm of thoughts; (**)
He ponders whether he should go there himself
To test the spell (as he deems it to be)
Or provide the materials from elsewhere,
In a farther but less difficult place.
But the pious hermit(***) calls him back from
The worries that weigh so much on his heart:
. . .

(*) Tancred
(**) One of the most interesting novelties in Gerusalemme Conquistata is Godfrey of Bouillon's doubts not only about particular problems, but about his very mission in the Holy Land. In Gerusalemme Liberata he appeared more unshakable.
(***) Peter of Amiens, aka Peter the Hermit, a historical personage who was among the main promoters of the Crusade.

The 7 Days of CryAction: The second online review, or so

Prof. Donald Mack Hassler's review (the same that has been mentioned in the previous post, or a different paper?) takes into consideration both The 7 Days of CryAction and the other translation of Tasso's long poem Il Mondo Creato, the philologically correct one, namely Creation of the World. The complete text of his review can be read here.

Favorite quotes: The 7Days version "shortens the English metric in order to create rapid, nearly jazzy beats," while already in the illustrations for the International Authors edition, the “jazzy, pulp quality that characterizes the Rivarossa rebellion is everywhere in the art even before his departure to the ebook version of the Tasso poem."

Again heartfelt thanks, Mack!

The 7 Days of CryAction: The first online review, or so

Her husband is Prof. Donald Mack Hassler, whom I warmly thank together with her.

Minority Report (2)

[16: 51]

Ancor dirò: ch'a gli arbori dà vita
Spirito human, che sente e che ragiona;
Io il so per prova, e n'ho la voce udita,
Che nel cor flebilmente ancor mi suona;
Stilla sangue de' tronchi ogni ferita,
Quasi di molle carne habbian persona.
No, no, non più potrei -- vinto mi chiamo --
Né corteccia scorzar né sveller ramo.

"And more than this, the trees receive life
From a human spirit that feels and speaks;
I did experience this, I heard that voice,
Which still echoes, though faintly, in my heart.
Blood does drip from every wound in the trunks,
As if they possessed a body (*) of soft flesh.
No, no, I give up, I would not be able
To bark one more tree, tear off a branch."

(*) Here Tasso uses the word persona in its original sense: the outward appearance of a human being. Line 4, in Italian, has the same cadence as Dante's verse Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona, "Love, who speaks inside my mind."
Tancred's description of his experience in the "dark forest," while omitting the most important detail, is filled with true, delicate sentiment.

The 7 Days of CryAction 4: 1130-1229

by ilT + Selkis (see Album)

So many marvels will

be seen in some centuries

in outer space, provided

anybody believes so.

As a cause they change

kingdoms, or kings indeed:

the old one was deposed

stars had a new sovereign.

Under Saturn the sky

slipped from the left

[1140] usurper Jupiter then

modified its motion

and by turn-transforming

he twisted all things

subject to the skies.

Like Benjamin Button

who heading for death

reversed his own age

came back to maturity

then little by little grew

[1150] young then younger

an innocent infant

eventually to the extreme

end of existence dis-

appearing in Ancient Mom.

Ha the truth of tales

betraying all doubts

about the fate of bodies—

given a very long law,

not eternal, by Elohim

[1160] and destined one day

to complete quiet.

Signs will be observed

preceding Doomsday

when the world’s frame

will fall aflame

the sun dripping red

and scary scars

on Selene’s skin.

The Forger in fact said,

[1170] “Let signs be seen

to dot days and years”

e.g. the lunar lakes

or Phoebus’ phenomena

that show us suggestions

for our toilsome lives.

An upset sky often

forecasts catastrophes,

many dry days have been

experienced by the elders.

[1180] One thing was taught

by the true Master:

“When the sky is sadly

red, a tempest approaches.”

This happens when Helios

is clothed in dark clouds

through which his robe

gleams as through glass

almost bloodstained;

or when twin-suns turn

[1190] around him, making

three frightening suns

as ancient Rome noted

and still often occurs

in the snowy North.

Sometimes we also see

long looming stripes like

a Dürerian rainbow

that portends tempests

or a dull day at least.

[1200] The moony moon

prophesies phenomena:

pure and thin the third day

it promises happiness,

if it grows red and horned

it then threatens rain

and Auster’s attack

vehement and violent.

But signs are more easily

seen in Aquilo’s kingdom

[1210] by shrewd steersmen.

If that cloudy corona

circling the sun or stars

suddenly disappears

then seamen expect

clear sky and calm;

if the celestial crown

breaks, from that “banda”

the wind is waited for;

if it shatters utterly

[1220] several spirits rise

to fight in the sky and sea

that become the battlefield

of warlike whirlwinds.

N.B. Signs can be substituted

by the mighty Mover.

May He show us serenity

from the cosmos, clearing

the dismal menaces

from our frail lives.

(to be continued on Nov. 13)