08:00 Lois and I get up and go in the shower. After
breakfast, I get going with browsing through the medieval poem,
"Alysoun" because Lynda's U3A Making of English group is holding its
regular monthly meeting this afternoon and "Alysoun" is the poem I
have been assigned to talk about.
I also browse through "Rats", the interesting
poem that Margaret has been assigned. The poem was written in the 15th century.
Obviously, the poet has a big rat problem for some reason, and he has become a
little bit desperate.
I sympathize with him. A few years ago, a young rat came
crawling into our kitchen through one of our outlet pipes and lived in our house
for a couple of weeks. He spent most of his stay with us under the floorboards,
and just came out at night to look for food.
Lois and I called the council's rat inspector who
put poison down the holes the rat was using to get in and out, and the rat
finally died, fortunately under our neighbor Bob's floorboards, so we did not
have to smell its little dead body, thank goodness. Sorry, Bob !!! Poor Bob
!! And poor rat ha ha !!!!
a typical team of local rat inspectors
However our Middle English poet took the more obvious
approach of simply ordering the rats in his house not to live in his house
any more. He gave the rats the order in the name of Jesus Christ, also in the
name of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, the 4 evangelists, and also in the name of
Saint Gertrude of Brabant, the patron saint of cats.
The poet seems to have had all his bases covered with
Jesus, the 4 evangelists, and Gertrude. But to be on the safe side he also
includes, as a bit of an afterthought perhaps, another saint, Saint Nicasius of Rheims, known
for his hatred of rats. After hearing only one of Nicasius's prayers, God
agreed to get all the rats on Nicaisius' property to drop down dead, "just like
that".
It's a bit of a shame, I think, that we live in
degenerate times, when we have to get our local councils to employ rat
inspectors, and saints like Saint Gertrud and St. Nicasius appear to have turned their
backs on us.
There are still saints and prophets alive today, but they
are significantly less influential than before, no doubt about that.
Steve, my brother-in-law, has sent me an interesting
email all about Kat Kerr, the prophetess in Florida who hit the headlines again recently when she ordered, in the name of Jesus Christ, various recent catastrophes to stop plaguing mankind, but unfortunately without
success.
It is possible that Kat is a so-called false prophet, but
she looks perfectly genuine to me. Perhaps the explanation is that all of
humanity has somehow taken a wrong turning, at one point or another since the
poem "Rats" was written in the 15th century. In some way or other, we
should perhaps try to "rewind" and start again. Right now, the
greatest need is to find some credible historians who can point out the
historical moment when it all started to get screwed up.
12:00 Lois and I have lunch, a bit earlier than usual, so I can
squeeze a short afternoon nap in before I have to take the bus into town.
13:15 I get up and ride into town. I swing by the
Everyman Theater café, and have a cup of coffee and a piece of fruitcake - yum
yum!
14:15 Other members of Lynda's U3A "Making of
English" group begin to gather so we all go up the stairs to the theatre's
2nd floor and start the group's monthly meeting in the bar. We take turns to read out our
poems, translate them into modern English, and comment on interesting words and
grammar.
I don't have a clue about what the theatre's "normal" customers think about us - the jury is still out on that one.
16:00 The meeting ends and I take the bus home again.
I'm exhausted and have a lot of wind in my stomach again,
also a stiff neck. Damn! Just my luck !!!
18:00 We have dinner and afterwards watch a bit of television. This evening's BBC Proms concert is on, and it's focusing on the folk music of the British Isles.
A charming concert. Although most of the songs we hear originate from
the British Isles, the singer Julie Fowlis includes a song in a Spanish dialect
for some reason. She warns the audience about this, but adds that her
performance will be bilingual, which sounds helpful until we find out that
the 2nd language would actually be Scottish Gaelic. Thanks very much, Julie!
My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz !!!!
Danish translation
08:00 Lois og jeg
står op og går i bad. Efter morgenmad går jeg i gang med at blade igennem det
middelengelske digt, ”Alysoun”, fordi Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe
holder sit regelmæssige månedlige mødet i eftermiddag, og ”Alysoun” er digtet,
jeg er blevet tildelt for at tale om.
Jeg blader
også igennem ”Rats”, det interessante digt, Margaret er blevet tildelt. Digtet
blev skrevet i det 15. århundrede. Det er klart , at digteren har en stor
rotteproblem af en eller anden grund, og han er blevet lidt desperat, lader det
til.
Jeg
sympatiserer med ham. For nogle år siden, en ung rotte nåede at kravle ind i
vores køkkenet gennem gennem et af vores udløbsrør og boede i huset i et par
uger. Han tilbragte det meste af sin ophold hos os under gulvplankerne, og kom
ud bare om natten for at lede efter mad.
Lois og jeg
tilkaldte med det samme kommunens rotte-inspektør, der lagde gift ned i
hullerne, rotten brugte for at komme ind og ud, og til sidste kom rotten til at
dø, heldigvis under vores nabo Bobs gulveplanker, så vi ikke blev nødt til at
lugte liget, gudskelov. Undskyld, Bob!!! Stakkels Bob!! Og stakkels rotte ha ha
!!!!
en
typisk hold af lokale rotte-inspektører
På den anden
side tog vores middelengelske digter den måske mere åbenbare tilgang af simpelthen
at beordre rotterne i sit hus ikke til at bo i huset længere. Han gav rotterne
ordren i navnet af Jesus Christ, også i navnet af Markus,
Matthæus, Lukas og Johannes, de 4 evangelier, også i navnet af Sankt
Gertrud af Brabant, der var skytshelgen af katte.
Digteren synes
at have fået alle baserne dækket med Jesus, de 4 evangelier, og Gertrud. Men
for en sikkerheds skyld inkluderer han også, som eftertanke, endnu en helgen,
Sankt Nicasius af Rheims, der blev kendt for sin had til rotter, lader det til.
Efter at høre kun en af Nicasius’ bønner, aftalte Gud at få alle rotterne i
Nicasisus’ mark til at dø, ”kun således”.
Det er lidt af
en skam, synes jeg, at vi lever i degenererede tider, hvor vi må få vores
lokale kommuner til at ansætte rotte-inspektører, og helgener som Sankt Gertrud
og Sankt Nicasius har vendt os ryggen.
Der er stadig helgener
og profeter, der endnu lever nu til dags, men de er betydeligt mindre
indflydelsesrige, end før, ingen tvivl om det!
Steve, min svigerbror,
har sendt mig en interessant email, der handler om Kat Kerr, en profet i
Florida, der har beordret i navnet af Jesus Christ mange forskellige nylig
katastropher til at holde op med at pine menneskeheden, men uden succes.
Det er muligt
at Kat er en såkaldt falsk profet, men hun ser oprigtig ud. Måske er
erklaringen, at hele menneskeheden desværre er gået forkert, på ét eller andet
tidspunkt siden digtet ”Rotter” blev skrevet i det 15. århundrede. På en eller
anden måde skal vi prøve at ”spole tilbage” og starte igen. Lige nu er den
største trang til af finde nogle troværdige historikere, der kan påpege det
historiske tidspunkt, da det hele begyndte at blive fucket op, ingen tvivl om
det!!!!
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost, lidt tidligere, end normalt, så jeg kan få plads til en kort
eftermiddagslur, før jeg skal tage bussen ind i byen.
13:15 Jeg står
op og tager bussen ind i byen. Jeg smutter ind hos Everyman-Teatrets café,
drikker en kop kaffe og spiser et stykke Victoria sukkerbrødskage – yum yum!
14:15 Andre
medlemmer af Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe begynder at samles, så vi
alle gå op ad trappen til teatrets 2.
etage, og starter gruppens månedlige møde. Vi skifter til at læse vores digte,
oversætte dem til moderne engelsk, og kommentere interessante ord og grammatik.
16:00 Mødet
slutter og jeg tager bussen hjem igen.
Jeg er
udmattet, og har rigtig meget luft i maven igen, også hold i nakken. Pokkers!
Bare mit held!!!
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bagefter ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser aftenens BBC Proms
koncert, der fokuserer på folkmusikken af de Britiske Øer.
En charmerende
koncert. Selvom de fleste sange stammede fra de Britiske Øer, inkluderer sangeren Julie Fowlis en sang på en spansk dialekt. Hun advarer publikummet
til dette, men tilføjer at hendes forestilling vil være tosproget, hvilket
lyder behjælpeligt, indtil vi finder ud af, at det 2. sprog faktisk vil være
skotsk gælisk. Tusind tak, Julie!
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i
!!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzz!!!!
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