{"id":54406,"date":"2017-03-19T20:24:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T20:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=54406"},"modified":"2017-03-19T20:26:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T20:26:45","slug":"sunday-surprise-literal-rainfall-ancient-and-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=54406","title":{"rendered":"Sunday surprise — literal rainfall ancient and modern"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — a DoubleQuote in the arts ]
\n.<\/p>\n

Guillaume Apollinaire<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Il pleut <\/strong><\/p>\n

Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles \u00e9taient mortes m\u00eame dans le souvenir
\nc\u2019est vous aussi qu\u2019il pleut merveilleuses rencontres de ma vie \u00f4 gouttelettes
\net ces nuages cabr\u00e9s se prennent \u00e0 hennir tout un univers de villes auriculaires
\n\u00e9coute s\u2019il pleut tandis que le regret et le d\u00e9dain pleurent une ancienne musique
\n\u00e9coute tomber les liens qui te retiennent en haut et en bas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Roger Shattuck<\/strong>, brilliant author of The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France<\/a>) translates:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Raining<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s raining women\u2019s voices as if they had died even in memory
\nAnd it\u2019s raining you as well marvellous encounters of my life O little drops
\nThose rearing clouds begin to neigh a whole universe of auricular cities
\nListen if it rains while regret and disdain weep to an ancient music
\nListen to the bonds fall off which hold you above and below<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Edward Hirsch<\/strong> comments at Poetry Foundation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The slanting lines of Apollinaire\u2019s poem create the sensation of rain running downward across a windowpane. Graphic form and verbal music come together as each long vertical line becomes a rhythmic unit of meaning<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— which is itself a verbal \/ visual DoubleQuote<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Code running downward..<\/p>\n