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Ten minutes ago I rang up an old friend (he was gay but never a lover of mine) and it turned out that he died seven years ago!
A Brazilian, Machado de Assis 1839-1908, wrote a book translated in 1952 as "Epitaph of a small winner"which I first read in the '50s.
I've always remembered a phrase from it 'singing a yearning'. which occurred in the passage below.
How will we do without letters? When this computer dies the emails will probably die with it.
Love,
Anthony
quote:
Now and then I bustled about. I would take a bureau drawer full of old letters — from friends, relatives, girls (including Marcella)— would spill them onto a table, would open and read them all, and would recompose the past . . . Unenlightened reader, if you do not keep the letters of your youth you will never enjoy the pleasure of seeing yourself, far off in the flatteringly dim light, with a three-cornered hat, seven-league boots, and curled mustachios, dancing at a ball to the music of Anacreontic pipes. By all means, save the letters of your youth.
Or, if you do not like the figure of the three-cornered hat, I shall use an expression of an old sailor who used to come to Cotrim's house. I shall say that, if you save the letters of your youth, you will be able to "sing a yearning." It seems that our sailors give this name to songs about the land that are sung only at sea. It would be hard to find a more poetic expression of nostalgia.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13809
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I realise, or think, this is not the point you are making, but I am sorry your friend died without your speaking to him
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Dear Timmy,
Yes, of course, so was I (sorry my friend had died).
On the subject of nostalgia - I just tried to delete my avatar picture and download a picture of my face at age 20. Is this stupid? Should I offer a picture of my white hair?
I don't think I'm vain, but Anna might tell you otherwise. I think I might have been justified if I had been when I was twenty.
Love,
Anthony
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13809
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Your avatar should reflect what you wish, not what you think it ought to reflect.
I have never grown up. My picture is of me while I still felt "my" John was wonderful and perfect (while acknowledging inside that he was neither, and knowing that I had "created" an aura of perfection around him). So it shows me at a time when I felt that I, too, was perfect.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Dear Timmy,
I agree: I'm responsible and have the choice of avatar. But surely as tempo's question revealed, there are many reasons for choosing.
And I am undecided. Would people like to see what I look like now or what I looked like when I was a randy young man?
Does nayone want to see either of those or something different?
Love,
Anthony
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Attachment: ajc050e.jpg
(Size: 3.83KB, Downloaded 343 times)
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…is not what it used to be.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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