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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Fast Day 308 April 27 2013: Rêves d’Absinthe



 Absinthe - Wormwood



Rêves d’Absinthe


Saint Luc, Saint Luc, si gentil que tu sois;
utile et gentil, Saint Luc, avec moi:
marjolaine, romarin, thym,
et encore un peu d'absinthe;

 
Saint Luc, Saint Luc, pilote auto,

miel et vinaigre avant le feu;
je dors dans le temple à colonnade
couronnée de feuilles d'acanthe!



--
St. Luke, St. Luke, however kind you may be,
helpful and kind, Saint Luke, to me:
marjoram, rosemary, thyme,
and a bit of absinthe.

Saint Luke, Saint Luke, auto pilot
honey and vinegar before the fire:
I sleep in the temple with the columns
crowned with acanthus leaves! 


--
notes

I woke up this morning with "absinthe" in my head.  I seek old Coleridge having myself overdosed on fried chicken and popsicles...

I had been reading about wormwood - or absinthe - in an old herbal, and there was a bit on love charms and philters addressed to various saints.

The herbs probably make up a love charm, Saint Luke is in charge of the whole process... and I apparently put him on "auto pilot" so as to not interfere with whatever dreams of love may come.

The temple with columns crowned by acanthus is a temple with Corinthian pillars, and I assume it is the temple to Artemis, or Diana of Ephesus. If you remember the well known statue of her, she is rightly called  "amazon", a term which I read as  initial "a" intensifier + "mazon"...
The usual books on mythology read the intial "a" as a "privative", but that is a very facile and thoughtless translation. 

-- 

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