Happy birthday, mmegaera...

To mmegaera:



Wishing you a year of beautiful flowers, lovely music, great books and good friends.

Zima Junction...

So far, every poem I've posted here is in its original text, usually straight from some book or other. I'm doing something different with this one; not only do I not have the text, it's a work in translation that I read decades ago and haven't seen since. I've found the poem, but not this particular translation, and I've lost my transcription long since. I don't like other translations, so you're stuck with what's in my memory. No guarantees as to accuracy of any kind.

The poem is an extract from Zima Junction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian, born 1933). It's a reference to his birthplace, which at the end of this poem, speaks to him:

from "Zima Junction" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

"Think. Meditate. Listen.
Count happiness conatural to the mind,
More than truth is, and yet
No truth can exist without it.

Walk with a cold pride
Utterly ahead
Eyes flicked by the rain-wet
Green needles of the pine.
Eyelashes that shine
With tears and with thunders.

Love people.
Love entertains its own discrimination.
You may return to me; I will be waiting.
Now go."

I went, and I am still going.

Bones...

A couple of weeks ago my doctor sent me for a Bone Density Scan. Then her office phoned me to ask me to stand by for a phone call from her at 12:30 pm today.

Uh-oh, thought I. What's wrong with my bones? There was no reason to think I had a bone problem, except for my broken ankle a year ago. But I worried, as one does about test results. Especially since my back has been hurting intermittantly.

I didn't need to worry. The news is all good. The Doctor said my bones are "beautiful" and whatever I've been doing, keep it up.

I think I'd better go do some yoga now, as a sort of... celebration of relief.

Torchwood: Trivia Quiz...

Because I like such things myself, I've designed my very own Torchwood Trivia Quiz. You're invited to answer the questions - and I will offer a prize to whoever first gets the most answers correct.

Fajrdrako's Torchwood Trivia Quiz #1

For each question, answer the question, and state what episode of Torchwood it refers to.

1. Who was Jenny Long?
2. Whose thoughts were not pure, but consistent?
3. What are Arkans mostly made of?
4. Who killed twenty-six men?
5. Who does Jack say he will rely on if the world is ending?
6. For what medical problem did Owen prescribe 30 milligrams of Streptomycin and Chloramphenicol plus two of Tetracycline?
7. Who gave off electro-magnetic waves?
8. Who met at Roundstone Wood?
9. Who tells Jack to "retrolock the transmission coordinates"?
10. How many times has Toshiko seen Fred Astaire in Easter Parade?
11. What was the name of Suzie's esoteric discussion group?
12. Who was Matt Stevens?

Cross-posted to my lj and torch_wood.

FIC: Torchwood (drabble) - Welsh Vowels

Title: Welsh Vowels
Author: fajrdrako
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Challenge: tw100, challenge: poetry
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Cross-posted to my lj, and to tw100.

( Welsh Vowels )

(no subject)

This evening I went with Sandi and Lyn to the Museum of Civilization to see the Ancient Egyptian exhibit, Tombs of Eternity, and, even better, to see the IMAX movie, Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs.



The exhibit was not large, but it was beautiful.

The movie was fun. It had me thinking about how often in my life I have seen the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs and priests depicted as villains - in Biblical epics, in things like The Mummy. But this film did some reenactment of scenes from the time of Rameses II, and it was a thrill to me to see the Egyptian costumes, and the historical characters depicted without prejudice.

There were three levels to the movie; it showed, as background, the mummification process and the ceremonies of the time of Ramesses II; it showed the events of 1881 as Charles Wilbur discovered Rasmesses' tomb; and it showed current-day studies of modern mummification processes in attempts to study and understand the chemistry of mummy DNA.

And all this with many gorgeous scenes of Egyptian statues and carving at places like Abu Simbel, Karnak, and Luxor.