green lime trees

Project I-can't-remember-what-I-called-it-not-tough-love-the-other-one is at about 4K out of 32K or so. We progress.

Adrenaline-boosting moments of the day involved the power going off at work (the hospital), due to a local substation having problems. Fortuntely the reserve power cut in almost immediately, but we weren't back to full computer use for a few hours. (Power went to the most important areas like emergency treatment first, of course.) I'm not sure whether to be pleased or regretful that I had plenty of stuff I could do without needing to be on my computer.

Have uploaded (far too much) music onto my home computer -- most of my French stuff, in particular. Am now sternly resisting urge to even consider getting an iPod. Fortunately, they're expensive enough that even looking at one on amazon acts as a healthy dose of cold water, and a cheap mp3 player just wouldn't be worth it. Something to save up for, clearly.

Now have a Cinquadea on FFTA, which means I can Steal Ability, which means . . . hm, where can I find a thief who knows Steal Weapon? (I will, of course, find a SwordBreaker that would have painlessly taught me the ability directly afterwards, but either way I get what I want.)

Need more brainspace to write. Am alternating between a state of wild optimistic enthusiasm, and somewhat terrified nervousness which is sadly unaffected by common sense. Luckily the optimism's more current.

Chicken yakitori booked by parents (from me) for tomorrow night. Must remember to soak the wooden skewers well in advance this time. Must also remember that I always take longer setting up the skewers than I think I'm going to. Must also hope that mother gets home from work at reasonable hour. Yes, I know one workaholic shouldn't criticise another, but boy, is that particular kettle an elegant shade of noir.

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Romance

I

When you are seventeen you aren't really serious.
- One fine evening, you've had enough of beer and lemonade,
And the rowdy cafes with their dazzling lights !
- You go walking beneath the green lime trees of the promenade.

The lime trees smell good on fine evenings in June !
The air is so soft sometimes, you close your eyelids ;
The wind, full of sounds, - the town's not far away -
Carries odours of vines, and odours of beer...

II

- Then you see a very tiny rag
Of dark blue, framed by a small branch,
Pierced by an unlucky star which is melting away
With soft little shivers, small, perfectly white...

June night ! Seventeen ! - You let yourself get drunk.
The sap is champagne and goes straight to your head...
You are wandering ; you feel a kiss on your lips
Which quivers there like something small and alive...

III

Your mad heart goes Crusoeing through all the romances,
- When, under the light of a pale street lamp,
Passes a young girl with charming little airs,
In the shadow of her father's terrifying stiff collar...

And because you strike her as absurdly naif,
As she trots along in her little ankle boots,
She turns, wide awake, with a brisk movement...
And then cavatinas die on your lips...

IV

You're in love. Taken until the month of August.
You're in love - Your sonnets make Her laugh.
All your friends disappear, you are not quite the thing.
- Then your adored one, one evening, condescends to write to you...!

That evening,... - you go back again to the dazzling cafes,
You ask for beer or for lemonade...
- You are not really serious when you are seventeen
And there are green lime trees on the promenade...

-- Translated by Oliver Bernard : Arthur Rimbaud, Collected Poems (1962)

oh, my fainting eyes

I quite appreciate that anyone reading this entry has a mind as pure as the driven slush -- quite like my own, in fact -- and will be moved by this article purely on the grounds of gender equality and the fact that I doubt they'd have cut any frontal female shots.

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Farrell's 'Huge' Manhood Cut from Film

June 23 2004 11:12:44
Irish heart-throb Colin Farrell's first full frontal movie scene has been cut by worried film bosses - after test audiences were transfixed by the size of his manhood. The Phone Booth hunk disrobed for scenes in upcoming drama A Home at the End of the World, but after seeing the stunned reaction of viewers at a recent screening, chiefs decided to chop the naughty images. And the news has been greeted with fury by self-confessed Romeo Farrell, who has demanded the scenes must be included in the DVD release of the film. A source tells British newspaper the Sun, "All you could hear were gasps when Colin appeared in his full frontal pose. The women were over-excited and the men looked really uncomfortable. It was such a sight it made it difficult to concentrate on the plot, so the decision was made to get rid of it." Even director Michael Mayer admits, "It was distracting." In the film, Farrell plays a bisexual man caught in a love triangle.