10:02 PM Posted by James Owens

self-portrait when the weather is a mirror













22 comments:

Roxana said...

speechless

Lady Jo said...

le froid, la tourmente....
la peur....
le bonsoir ;-)

James Owens said...

Roxana: Tu și eu știm că liniștea uneori vorbește mai bine decât cuvintele :-) Onorează-mi “speechless” tău.

XoXo said...

They all look awesome in different ways. Great selections.

James Owens said...

Lady Jo: Oui, c’est tout ça :-) Merci pour venir réchauffer le jour avec ta visite....

James Owens said...

Pacey: Thank you for coming by and for your comment. I'm very glad you liked these. I wasn't sure, myself ...but sometimes one takes a chance :-) ... and I'm liking them better now...

Roxana said...

tu acolo, oarecum întors către un mal
dincolo de ceea ce însemnase, până atunci,
pentru noi şi poate chiar pentru somnul nostru,
tăcerea, neştiind că nu vântul
îţi adusese zăpada în păr, şi nici luna.

ci ochii mei care se închideau peste tine,
blând, ca peste o oglindă.

James Owens said...

Roxana: Once more I am reminded how pointless it is when you say that you are not a poet :-) I love this. The only thing I can do is offer this translation, a clumsy shadow in the shape of the graceful light you cast here:

you there, somehow having turned toward a shore
beyond what the silence had meant, until then,
for us and maybe even for our sleep,
not knowing that it was not the wind
that had brought snow into your hair, not the moon,

but my eyes closing over you,
gently, as over a mirror

S. Etole said...

transition into light ... may you be bathed in it

Roxana said...

:-)

perfect!

i am so glad you like it (though no, i am not a ...)

:-)

James Owens said...

Susan: Thank you for this wish! I appreciate and reciprocate.

James Owens said...

Roxana; :-)

I guess we will simply have to disagree on whether you are a.....

(but i think my evidence is quite strong...)

Marion McCready said...

I love the header - such freshness and clarity yet a softness.
What a beautiful place you live in!

James Owens said...

Sorlil: It seemed the right time to move on from the autumn leaves in the header ... glad you like the new one. There are some nice places around here ... but then, I guess I tend to look at the more attractive bits, too :-)

chrome3d said...

In the end your self almost disappeared like the rest of it. Hopefully you find it again!:-)

James Owens said...

Chrome: Just in time, yes ... I remembered to exist :-)

beth said...

so true....yet sometimes we choose to see what we look like, not listening to the mirror's truth...

James Owens said...

Beth: I don't know. Not to get too abstract, but we also choose which mirrors we are going to look into, do we not? :-)

isabella kramer - veredit said...

"Die Rose stand im Tau,
es waren Perlen grau,
als Sonne sie beschienen,
wurden sie zu Rubinen."
__________________________________

"The rose was in the dew,
Beads were gray,
as the sun shone,
they were rubies too."
Friedrich Rückert, (1788 - 1866)

no really good translation, I think, but your self-portrait is just wonderful philosophically

James Owens said...

Veredit: Thank you for the gift of this stanza. Yes, I think it is almost impossible to translate these lines well. I think one has to keep the rhyme, and the German is quick and light in a way I cannot match.

I can't help trying. Admitting the obvious, this seems rather poor to me :-) but what do you think?

The rose stood before day
In dew’s pearls of gray --
When the sun returned,
Like rubies they burned.

.

isabella kramer - veredit said...

Oh James, wonderful! I think in this way, it is perfectly translated really. You're just a poet, I knew it!

James Owens said...

Veredit: :-)