January 31, 2008
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Happy Birthday to a Dark Lady
From G. K. Chesterton,
The Black VirginAs the black moon
of some divine eclipse,
As the black sun
of the Apocalypse,
As the black flower
that blessed Odysseus back
From witchcraft; and
he saw again the ships.In all thy thousand images
we salute thee.Earlier in the poem….Clothed with the sun
or standing on the moon
Crowned with the stars
or single, a morning star,
Sunlight and moonlight
are thy luminous shadows,
Starlight and twilight
thy refractions are,
Lights and half-lights and
all lights turn about thee.From Oct. 16, 2007,
date of death of Deborah Kerr:“Harish, who was
of a
spiritual, even religious, cast
and who liked to express himself in
metaphors, vivid and
compelling,
did see, I believe, mathematics
as mediating between man
and
what one can only
call God.”
– R. P. Langlands
From a link of Jan. 17, 2008–
Time and Eternity:
Jean Simmons (l.) and Deborah Kerr (r.)
in “Black Narcissus” (1947)and from the next day,
Jan. 18, 2008:… Todo lo sé por el lucero puro
que brilla en la diadema de la Muerte.
– Rubén Darío,
born January 18, 1867Related material:
Dark Lady and Bright Star,
Time and Eternity,
Damnation MorningHappy birthday also to
the late John O’Hara.
