2022-07-03 Independence Weekend

【Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction——It Must Be Abstract·I (1942)】

Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)

        Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea

        Of this invention, this invented world,

        The inconceivable idea of the sun.

        You must become an ignorant man again

        And see the sun again with an ignorant eye

        And see it clearly in the idea of it.

        Never suppose an inventing mind as source

        Of this idea nor for that mind compose

        A voluminous master folded in his fire.

        How clean the sun when seen in its idea,

        Washed in the remotest cleanliness of a heaven

        That has expelled us and our images…

        The death of one god is the death of all.

        Let purple Phoebus lie in umber harvest,

        Let Phoebus slumber and die in autumn umber,

        Phoebus is dead, ephebe. But Phoebus was

        A name for something that never could be named.

        There was a project for the sun and is.

—— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • —— • ——

【《最高虛構筆記——它必定抽象·之一》(1942年)】

威爾士人·史蒂文斯(1879生—1955卒)

            開始的時候，青年男生，通過概念構思

            這個創意，這樣虛擬的世界，

            難以想象的太陽觀念。

            你得變回無知之輩

            再用蒙昧的眼光注視太陽

            並依照它的邏輯清楚地看到實相。

            從不靠創造性思維得出

            這種想法也不用那頂腦袋勾勒

            熱情奔放的多面手。

            陽光令人感覺多麼純潔，

            蕩滌着離塵淨土的天堂

            早已排除我們的實體影像……

            一神之死就是所有人之死。

            讓紫紅色地衣沉浸在棕褐色收穫之中，

            使太陽神在深秋沉眠不醒，

            太陽神死了，青年男生。但太陽神代表

            沒有名字的尤物。

            黃金盛世者非它莫屬。

【注】北賓州溪谷地理上算作費城遠郊，但其西部地區傳統上更偏重農村，而南部和東部總體上則屬於“臥城”，既是費城通勤者居住的田園鎮，又是諸如默克(Merck)、強生(J&J)等大型藥業的家屬區。

以下大多是北賓州溪谷載入《國家史跡名錄》(Natl. Register of Historic Places)的建築。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Munich—BMW & Hofbraeuhaus, DEU(德國慕尼黑─寶馬總部與宮廷啤酒館)

2017: Salzburg the Stage of the World, AUT(奧地利鹽堡—世界舞台)

2016: Capital Helsinki, Finland(芬蘭首都赫爾辛基)

2016: Medieval Porvoo, Finland(芬蘭中世紀古鎮城堡河市)

2015: Naples—City of the Sun, Italy(意大利那不勒斯—太陽之城)

2015: Neapolitan Authentic Pizza, Italy(意大利那不勒斯正宗披薩)

2014: YMCA Camp—Sports Injuries(基督教青年會營運動受傷)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

USA(出遊美國)

萬花筒(Kaleidoscope)