Saturday, January 9, 2010

A FIELD THAT HAS RESTED

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.
-- Ovid (43 B.C. to 17 or 18 A.D.)






















Oboe's paisley pillow was given to me by a young woman who completed a 14-day residential Yoga teacher training course with me and others in sublimely beautiful Plain, Washington, in late summer of 2007. The young woman was flying home to New Jersey after the course was completed and didn't want to try to bring the pillow with her on the airplane. She had bought it as a meditation pillow to be used during the Yoga teacher training. Oboe has claimed it as her own meditation pillow. I didn't become a Yoga teacher after all but still practice a series of Yoga postures daily in the early morning.

This morning at exactly 9 a.m. the sun appeared from behind the clouds to the east and lit up the trees, cattails and grass I can see from my porch:






















Can you hear the Red-Shafted Flicker's klee-yer (after the wick wick wick wick wick wick)?

Just now, while reading about Ovid in a Wikipedia article, I began to wonder idly if Bob Dylan had read Ovid because the article mentioned a woman named Corinna. As I read further, I began to wonder if Bob Dylan had been reading Ovid as he wrote the songs for his CD released on September 11, 2001, "Love and Theft."

Here's what I found, though:

American musician Bob Dylan's album Modern Times contains songs with borrowed lines from Ovid's Poems of Exile, from Peter Green's translation. The songs are "Workingman's Blues #2", "Ain't Talkin'", "The Levee's Gonna Break", and "Spirit on the Water."

(from the Wikipedia article on Modern Times)

Come to think of it, my grandmother on my mother's side was named Cora Irene and was known as "Rena." I have a copy of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" that belonged to my grandfather, Rudolf. As Bob wrote, "Take what you have gathered from coincidence."

"Corrina, Corrina, where you been so long?"

10 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

Corinna - a Grek poetess. 'I got a bird that whistles, I got a bird that sings...'

After her divorce, my mother-in-law's first (and only as it turned out) 'boyfriend', a Norwegian, was called Köre.

'My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.' (Ovid)

am said...

Solitary Walker --

Körena, Körena!

You inspired me to learn to make letters with umlauts!

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Korena

The Solitary Walker said...

Wunderschön!

Anonymous said...

always loved koettke's take on the song. kjm

Zhoen said...

Oboe on Paisley, good name for a song.

robin andrea said...

I was reading a review of Patti Smith's new autobiography this morning and it mentioned how much she identified with Dylan. It made me think of you.

Beautiful paisley pillow with Oboe.

am said...

kjm -- Thanks for the suggestion! I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec1na9t29Pk

Zhoen -- Moby could inspire some soulful tunes, too.

robin andrea -- One of my favorite songs is Patti Smith's "Dead to the World." Written after her husband died, I hear it as a celebration of an enduring love. Makes me think of Richard. As does Bob Dylan's music.

http://popup.lala.com/popup/504684659304125872

Art Farmer said...

Oboe on her pillow makes me peaceful. 30 Years ago, I changed my first name to Karuna, which in Sanskrit means "compassion" but all my friends kept singing "Corina, Corina" and that ended that! Oboe is Karuna as she sits, Buddha-like, on her meditation pillow filling your space with her Silence.

Dawn said...

wow I can hear that flicker, oh yeah he is outside my window LOL!

bev said...

love the phot of Oboe on the paisley pillow.