A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: Chagall
Excerpt:
The good life, then, is at one and the same time the chief end or goal, both of each person and of the true civil society.
DO YOU SEE THE TOWN?
Do you see the town, how it rests over there,
whispering, it nestles in the cloak of night?
The moon pours her silvery silken stream
down upon it in magical splendor.
The gentle night wind wafts its breath from there,
so ghostly, a dying, gentle sound:
It cries in dreams, it breathes deeply and heavily,
it whispers, mysterious, alluringly frightened . . .
The dark town, it sleeps in my heart
with brilliance and fire, with painfully colored splendor:
But its reflection floats around you, flatters you,
Hushed to a whisper, gliding, through the night.
~ Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), Austrian poet
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My Note:
I have been re-reading posts from Marks in the Margin, whose blog sadly lies dormant. On stormy days I retreat to his blog archive and re-read them. As a lover of reading I absolutely love his posts. He wrote a lot about Powell's in Portland which led me to the suburban concept of 'Third Place." This has never really been a problem in the Old World just in the New.
When I was a university student everyone, students from all over the world, congregated at the nearby French cafe's outdoor patio. We just shoved the tables together! Sometimes two or three sat on the same chair. On any given day there might be more than thirty in our rousing conversations.
It was and is sadly not a common place activity in most U.S. areas. Somehow bowling alleys and clubs just don't replace it. It was a logical extension of the village in Europe. If we think of France or Spain that is what comes to mind. People from all walks of life, all ages, congregate at these 'tertulias.'
First Place? The home. Second Place? The work place. But Third Place in the U. S.? If I came into money I would 'post' one in every city and 'town.'
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