BY RAINER MARIA RILKE

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LUCIA PERILLO

Read the translator’s notes

Babeldom,babeldom

Send for the horse’s heads and beat  upon a drum

Kindgdom come,kingdom come.

Too much idle chatter makes my heart feel numb

“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

An intriguing notion was the succubus

Who took the guilt off night sex from us.

Men were  all innocent

But the succubus was intent

On arousing their organ with  her tremulus.

It never seemed to be clear we are  beasts

Imbued with reproductive pursuits.

So we all got hysteria,

Trying to be superior.

Men are all horny,at least.

I understand women’s fear of an incubus

Who  excited himself to  have sex with us.

Wish fulfilment  makes us cheerful

And being loveless is tearful.

Yet a   beloved human man is the best for us.

I suppose these are projections of  our badness

Into other beings  more glad than us.

We criticise in others

All our  crimes,sins and bothers

Then they become even more sad than us.

Definition:

a demon assuming female form in order to have sexual intercourse with men in their sleep

About the Word:

A succubus is the female version of an incubus – a demon in male form who has sexual intercourse with sleeping females.

Originating in medieval European folklore, with similar beings in many cultures, succubi appear in modern fiction, video games, and South Park.

As a more practical insult, the word is also used figuratively, as in this Jezebel.com headline: “This Week In Tabloids: Courtney the Evil Succubus Maneater Will Devour Bachelor Ben.”

Dictionary.com

/ˈsʌkjʊbəs/

Mary liked that moment on Xmas Eve when at last she closed and locked  the front door after Stan had carried in the last bit of shopping and the shops would close for a while

Although many  shops only close for one day now,there is a still a feeling in many women’s hearts that they must stock up with all conceivable food and drink.At one time Stan baked bread so there was no panic buying of elderly, sliced loaves from newsagents’ shops,just in case the real bread ran out. After all one might eat fried mince pies and eggs for breakfast or curried Christmas cake with brown rice and bananas in lemon juice for dinner.

Man cannot live by bread alone and here we can all agree even if we are not religious.

Mary walked down the hall and into the green and blue  striped kitchen. I’ll make a good cup of tea now,she cried to Stan.

Thanks,honey. he replied in his kindly way.Any choccy biscuits?

Stan loved a chocolate biscuit but parsimony made Mary refuse to buy them weekly.And also Stan himself believes that if you eat something every week it’s no longer such a treat. Mary poured the boiling water into the tea pot and at the same moment she heard a familiar voice.

Hi,Stan,Hi Mary,can I come in and have a chat now?

It was Annie their stunningly beautiful female neighbour wearing a long green tartan wool skirt and a cashmere and merino jumper of ocean blue. Her eyeshadow was teal and her lipstick was pale pink and shiney like a well polished mirrror.Who knows what it was made of?

Why Annie,you match the kitchen,said Stan.You will have to move in. Where would I sleep? she enquired roguishly

In the dog’s basket.It’s quite big… it was made for a St Bernard

You don’t have any dog,Annie cried through her luscious wasp stung pink glowing lips.

There’s no law that stops cat owners buying dog baskets.Stan said humorously.

But it seems silly to me,Annie murmured.A waste of money.

Well,we did think that if someone wanted to stay over they could sleep in it.

What a strange idea when you have a five bedroomed house with 3 en suites and a sprinkler in the garden.

Well,we had the dog basket when we lived in a small flat and have never updated our mental set ups.Stan lectured manfully.

How do we update our mental set ups,asked Mary with a twinkle in her large blue and singularly beautiful eyes.

Well,Mary,look at you.I asked you to buy a laptiop ten years ago but you were convinced that you would never be able to learn how to use it.Clearly with your mathematical training and you love of philosophy and your three higher degrees in real and complex analysis you were judging yourself wrongly….. but why you think you can’t do certain things I am not able to say.You might date it back to always being asked to do too much as a child.

Yes,said Mary.When we got an electric cooker,Mother could not work the timer but she knew I could do it.But it was only by trial and error,not to mention trial and terror.

Annie chimed in

Thank God I was backward as a child so I played with dolls till I was fifteen and then I played with a boy in the shrubbery and he played with me in his shrubbery,

Very nice I am sure,Mary said icily.And you still play with yourself now I expect.

How dare you said,Annie.I play by myself but not with myself.

This is all very odd,thought Emile. Can a cat play with itself? Yes,I have played with my shadow on the big brick wall… all alone.Does Annie play with her shadow? That must be good fun. Suddenly the door bell rang very loudly making Stan turn green as he fell off his chair onto the red cork flooring.In ran Dave,the transexual paramedic..

Here I am and I have brought Emile 12 mice pies,he cried merrily

Are they sweet or savoury ,asked Stan curiously.

I dunno said Dave.I got’em in Waitclose.You could phone them.

All I want to know is, were the mice raised in a suitable environment with fresh air and plenty of natural food.Are the pies full of taste enhancers and dangerous chemicals?

Oh,my said Dave turning red,I only got them for Emile not for the Queen Mother.

Well,Stan said, we must be consistent in life and what is wrong for one species must be wrong for all.

But can you prove that,asked Mary.Suppose some mice have been eating food in a house where the humans only eat ready made meals and buy cakes in a supermarket.Folk in such a house would not mind their cats and the mice eating food full of all manner of preservatives,flavouring of a artificial type and going without five fruits a day.I can’t imagine a mouse eating five fruits a day.He’d prefer five spoons of bread and cheese grated.

I suppose it would depend on the size of the fruit,Stan answered eloquently.

I do like coming here,said Dave.You discuss such intriguing things. Well,said Annie,I’d prefer to discuss what sort of shampoo is good for old hair. The hair is not old,said Dave.It grows all the time and you cut the ends off so it’s new… You know what I mean,older people’s hair can go thinner and more frizzy… even cat’s coats are not so thick when they grow old.Sometimes they have to be given tailor made winter coats and small hats.

Why,are they Jewish ? teased Mary..

What do you mean ?

Jewish men sometimes wear little caps or even big hats in winter to mark their respect for God, the great mystery..

I am afraid you have made an error in your logic: All Jewish men wear hats Emile wears a hat Hence Emile is Jewish, That is not a valid argument. Neither is : All boys play games. I play games Hence I am a boy.

Do Jewish boys play with hats,asked Emile.

No,they play with cats,Stan told him.Just like most other boys do.Why I used to spend hours trailing string across the floor to get our little kitty excited…. then one day she got really over excited and later gave birth to four kittens,.

You don’t think it was playing with string that caused that, Mary whispered behind her hand to Stan.They must have had a father. Yes,causation and correlation are often confused.He told her.Buying a car does not cause one to fornicate in the back seat.It just gives an extra choice to hand when the bushes and haystacks are  too wet

Can’t we listen to some carols,said Annie nervously.I am shocked by your bold talk.

We can sing  acarol said Stan.Here is my newest.

Oh,little town of Bethlehem divided by a wall…..

Hark the herald angel’s twang He’s from Gateshead,am I wrong?

Silence is golden,but my heart’s still blue. I had pneumonia,how about you?

Away with a stranger,no crib by the bed. I saw his hanky and it was bright red.
God test you sorry gentlemen,let bath salts now be sprayed.

Silent knight, please do alight.

We three kings all boring and bare.

Oh,come all ye  hateful.Fall into the duckpond.

I saw an angel in the tree.I looked up and there hvye bee

There is a green pill close at hand and it will give me rest

.[A tranquilliser it may be but some find brandy’s best.]

What an friend we have in Yehoshua.He will speak when he is born.

There is no rose of much virtue.

The holly killed the ivy.When they were both full grown

While leopards sllcked their  locks by night,all pleated as we found.

How would I feel the weight of silken cloth
Imprinted with the image of his night?
Would any human value be enough?
For what is wrong is also what is right.

To idly toss his art around my throat
To decorate myself when going out to dine.
To wantonly make vulgar what he wrought
I feel myself fall back and then decline

The perceptions of the suffering are a gift
but gifts must be received and taken in
The gazing and responding is not swift
But speed and hurry make our ways a sin.

Bow down before the image makers now.
Their wrestling with the gods makes all thing new

I wonder what rhymes with tmesis?

Perhaps it could live with my thesis.

It is  an unusual  word

Which I’ve never heard

But I read, which was my nemesis.

I’ve not found its origin  so far

But I can say with a certainty bizarre

It looks like Chinese

Disguised as a wheeze

To sell  at the Christmas bazaar .

[tuh-mee-sis]
The sole term in the English language to begin with tm- has an unusual meaning to match. Tmesis is the insertion of one or more words between the words that make up a compound phrase, as in “what-so-ever” inserted in the middle of “whatever.”

Oh,my bleeding God.

When  like ever

Are you staging

The second  revelatory coming.

The past blatant  tense

Has brought weapons of mass  and benedictory construction

But where the hell ‘s arse are they?

Don’t be so effing crude.

Be saintly like me.

Not bloody so.

This is how I felt

After you had died and gone.

Was it sacrilegious?

In the  newspaper

They say war planes flew last night,

They were all ready.

I miss you so much

Can you not haunt me ,as yet?

I want to see you.

Brighter sun,dark ground.

Too warm for Christmas, this year.

Christ’s in Syria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

It seems to me people forget that force can’t rule the world.Only agreement to accept the law of our own country can give us a peaceful society and I imagine it’s the same world-wide.OK force can do a  lot but not forever.

In Israel./Gaza /West Bank,despite that Israel has nuclear weapons they have been suffering frightening random knife attacks in Jerusalem and many other places and more thaan 70 people have been murderered.They have been like this for many years.Both sides suffer but neither will agree to some acceptable policy.Both seem to see things in black and white.It seems the Palestinians suffer more but the Jews have memories of trauma that are easily awakened as as we know  with grief a death now causes the grief  from the past to come back.How would we behave if we had that history?Yet it can determine the fate of that area forever… or can it?

Even here we have enough criminals to keep  the courts busy.Sometimes the crime is unplanned as in some domestic murders.But quite a lot of people live outside the law

Shame and humiliation breed terrorism.Anything is better than passive suffering ,so many people believe.Why live a life of misery when they can die as heros?Perhaps it stops them going crazy…

Good conducting helps society

With the arrival of new technology,people began to communicate using text messaging.It’s not really on to use punctuation.In fact the terser the message the easier to write.This brings back a greater need for the recipient to interpret what the sender means.And because of that it is most suited to contact between  people who know each other well.Different regions or subgroups in the same country might use different short cuts.

Tweeting is also less formal but that being so it can lead to problems as it can be read anywhere in the world.Manners and customs may disappear and indeed a lot of insults are sent this way.

What is thought to be bad  to use texting for depends on the age group of the people.Among adults one ought not to end friendships,marriages  or partnership this way,so we “mature” people claim.However if people frequently end friendships with you this way  it’s possible you might be a frightening figure who gets into a rage when crossed.In such a case ending via text message seems the height of wisdom.If it is cowardice that makes you end things like that, be brave and tell them face to face.I don’t mean on Google Hangouts either because when you end any relationship you should [ironically] be a little concerned about this other person who you may seem to be dumping with no warning.

Acting well actually makes us feel better and vice versa.Hell and heaven are here on earth and we create and dwell in   them every day.I have not dared yet to see how the vote will go on bombing but society also creates heaven and hell.We do what we can but can’t always avert  it as with Iraq.If it didn’t do much good then why will it now?Don’t text me.I’m knackered.

https://youtu.be/baP3EP_GD0I

Cameron  wants to drop his bombs,drop his bombs
Cameron wants to drop his bombs
Early in the morning.

Corbyn thinks it is no good,is no good
Corbyn thinks that is no good.
Gates of hell are yawning.

All we know is what we’re told,what we’re told
All we know is what we’re told
Though a few new thoughts are dawning.

Shall we help the refugees,refugees
Shall we have more refugees
It’s Christmas in the morning.

What would what Baby Jesus say.Jesus say.
What would Baby Jesus say?
I see God’s given up talking.

Of course what we do is ok,is ok
Of course the UK is OK.
What’s that shadow stalking?

Source: From Alternative Fiction & Poetry (1987)

We can communicate via images too.

As I was sitting here reflecting on a comment Rommel had made on my post “Style” I realised that as long as  our use of language was mainly oral we would not  have been worrying about apostrophes in the  sentence.

The cat ate it’s dinner v The cat ate its dinner.

The main reason,.I have thought of ,is that when we are talking to somebody in the flesh we have a lot more information about the situation we are in.If we had a dog called “It” my husband would know that the cat might:

Eat It’s dinner.

But he would probably be happy if the cat having been ill

ate its dinner.

When we move to written communication we have many advantages like being able to know   what others  elsewhere think,share information,read books etc but we have to be careful to make sure that we get over exactly what we intend and I think this is when punctuation helps and why it is so important.Of course we can say,I mean the cat ate its own dinner…etc but sometimes people misinterpret what another person writes and don’t know that they have done that,Also I find writing poetry that it may have meanings I never noticed.

One reason that Bible reading was not allowed in the Catholic church before the Reformation is that it was thought people needed to be learned about  the time the Bible was written,about different translations etc. So the priest would expound to them upon a reading.I don’t know if they could ask questions.It seems unlikely but they could ask privately.

Many people don’t know that the Gospels were not written for many years after Jesus died so  the claim they are literally true might be misleading.The people  such as MMLJ who wrote them were in a small community where no doubt being Jews [yes!] they would discuss things at length and compare ideas and discuss what to write and how to explain  it to the larger group.When the Church grew  enormously that was hard to maintain.The split between Jews and Christians came in after the fall of Jerusalem in 70  CE when nearly all the Jews were killed by the Romans.The Rabbinical  sect and the Christian  sect were the survivors according to Karen Armstrong.They went separate ways.And  even with the Christians there had been conflicts about whether non Jews could become Christian.St Paul who wrote before the Gospels were written believed that non Jews were permitted to join but not everyone agreed,which led to a conflict between Jews who became Christians and Gentile Christians…. which led perhaps to the persecution of the Jews down the ages.

What we call the Old Testament is a selective rewriting of the Hebrew Bible which  has an even more complex history.Many of the stories are metaphorical as indeed they are in the New Testament.And many are now misunderstood like  ” an eye for an eye”

When we get the News now it’s not usually oral [I exclude TV as it is  not mutual].We get it in writing in the newspaper or on the screen here   and that is already an interpretation based on a  selective  choice from all that is happening..Again journalists need to know style,grammar and punctuation to make their writing transparent.Of the tabloid press, we might wish otherwise!We might choose to read other newspapers in other countries but time is a problem

If you disagree with me you can comment or ask me to clarify but if you disagree with BBC News or The Times it takes longer and may not have any effect.

I conclude that as humans move away from talking face to face it is harder to understand just what they mean when they use language..Talking together,we need no semi colons.As we moved into  using widespread written communication, we then needed ways to make clear our meaning but  in the end it is talking  between people which is primary and we need no lessons in grammar for that.I am surprise how no-one mentions how amazing it is that babies learn to talk without having lessons [but reading is harder for most children]

.Of course talking face to face has its own problems especially relating to power imbalances.And I have seen many articles about how we rarely listen properly and attentively to the person.Cultural differences also matter.I have taught many Muslim students and also interacted on-line and I find the men more courteous than   many  men from my  culture.It’s almost as if men here think,OK you want to be equal,we’ll hit you like we would a man or we’ll swear and curse in front of you or at you.Alas,many people don’t even know they are cursing and swearing as it is so common in soap operas.Why  even Alfred,my part time cat sometimes gives me a dirty look and a loud whine and might say something rude if he could talk in English.Thank God,he can’t

http://home.btconnect.com/ros.flemming/index.htm

If you love flowers and plants and want to see what is available or just like looking at good photographs then visit Ros’s other website above

Dark in the morning,the windows are grey.

Dark in my heart,where nothing can stay.

Dark in the evening,dark in the night.

Only  the cat’s eyes give me some light.

Knocked off the glove box down in  the hall

Knocked over the bin,found nothing at all.

Knocked down  your photograph  and stood on the glass.

Like me he’s reached the last impasse.

Waiting for what,as we sit here alone?

Waiting for nobody,heart like a stone.

Waiting  on God sounds rather strange.

Let’s say that grace cannot be pre-arranged.

Dark again,dark,where you fell into earth.

Darker and darker  like the devil’s own curse

Darkness  around me,darkness inside.

Washed all up on the evening tide.

Goodbye our future,fiction in fact.

Goodbye,did you say it with your special tact?

Goodbye,you never said it,you never addressed

The one who  was with you,but never caressed.

Is it impossible to run it again?

Is it a fancy that  can but remain?

Life’s just a film and we are the stars…

But when the reel stops,we fall so far.

Flying away,I saw the hand stuck,

Turning the reel to make this world work.

Flying away, I’ll never come home.

Flying and turning and ever alone.

The Economist Style Guide: 11th edition

The Economist

 

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Steven Pinker

Never end a sentence with and.

And never begin one with and either.

Like trying to reduce mathematics to a mere branch of logic as Russell and Whitehead did [didn’t  succeed,in fact],trying to write the rules of English grammar is  difficult

The main reason is that there are no rules.Let me explain.English was spoken for many hundreds of years before it was written down.Or,let’s say all language was originally oral.Eventually some bright person invented an alphabet.This was in the Middle East.Hebrew still uses an alphabet which pre-dates the Greek.Aleph is the first letter.We use it in mathematics to denote infinity as we ran out of Greek  letters and maybe French too.

When I say there are no rules I mean that the language existed for a long time before the development of alphabets and writing.Gradually  language developed and later written language but always there has been change and growth.And who makes the rules? The elite?

So to some extent there is no ultimate form.I  imagine that great writers like Shakespeare add to or influence the language they write in.And other people decide that some forms are better than others.It may be aesthetic;in maths it must be clear;in novels, perhaps dramatic.

Similarly punctuation arrived  only after writing developed.When  you learned to talk you could speak well by the time you went to school but an inverted comma was probably a new notion.We need  such things, sometimes ,to clarify what we mean.But language is still primarily used between people and it is a living being at its best.

Some people mock those who write,

that cat ate it’s dinner.

But  that is related  just to  what is customary:

the cat ate its dinner …. means its own dinner

“The cat ate it’s dinner” means another being called “it”  had its dinner eaten by the cat.Alas.

But usually the context tells us.

“I have lost my head” might confuse some of us.It’s most often a dead metaphor.

I lost my head and told my husband I regretted ever meeting him.But my head was screwed on the right way later.

She lost her head and swore  at the Rabbi who gamely swore back  to keep their friendship alive except it was all in his head.She didn’t even know he was a Rabbi, but believed he was  a soft toy with a missing tee.That’s life.For some.