Saturday, May 31, 2008

Early Summer

Just before bed last night I got the full effects of what the English call the Lime Tree: The sweet, heavy smell, almost intoxicating, certainly oddly refreshing, but suggestive of excess - edging towards cloying.

Linden it is known as in other parts of the world - the Romanians call it Tae (or Tee, or Tei or some such unspellablity) - but letting you know, in an unsympathetic to nature, practical way exactly what they do with it.


There is a sort of poet from Romania called Eminescu (bad late Romantic) who wrote:

Pătrunză talanga
Al serii rece vânt,
Deasupră-mi teiul sfânt
Să-şi scuture creanga.
While softly rings
The evening's cool wind
Above me the holy lime
Shakes its branch. (translation: M.G.Jiva) on Wiki
No accounting for taste.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, well, you have been amazed by eminescu's tree, the "TEI", not only a nice smelling tree but also the love tree in eminescu's creation, the tree that stands at his head in the where he sleeps for forever.

Alan K.Farrar said...

Drink Eminescu!

Anonymous said...

Are you saying that you don't like his poetry ? You can't be serious...
Eminescu in poetry is as least as good as Shakespeare in his work.

Alan K.Farrar said...

Oh the poor quality of Romanian education:

"Eminescu in poetry is as least as good as Shakespeare in his work."

and the crude nationalism.

Eminescu isn't even a second rate poet - maybe third rank. Nasty late romantic when the rest of Europe had moved on ... and beloved in Romania because he is Romanian.

Much greater literary figures abound.