A spring day

I am just warming like the weather to Google photos. I still can't post a slideshow but at least I can put captions on the individual photos. Sharing is only by link for blogger. So here's a link to a soft and beautiful walk in the meadow at Government House.

Translation

I am back to commenting a bit. I really wanted to translate today but instead I got a tree to put in the house (euphemistically called a houseplant).

Ruth

It's very tall. And it has moved since this placement closer to the window. (It's on wheels. Our ceilings are about 20 feet high).

A second tree found its way into the strata foyer and a third went to my downtown office.

These are recovery plants abandoned by their very rich owner who had no room for them in their new 2 bedroom apartment.

The whole family knows about these new gifts to the household. So the news is around the world. And I sit here listening to my daughter's performance of the Bach Organ Mass, Clavierbung 3. Why am I working when I could listen to such all day. If only I had practiced the piano when I was young. Discipline - was a word you could not use in those days - it meant punishment instead of discipleship. Such distortion!

You see why I translate for myself. Why would I trust those who could not possibly understand good order.

Here's a comment on translation related to the Hebrew chayil, XYL in my simple letters. The stimulus is here on Rachel Held Evans' blog.

Boaz

Those glosses for Hebrew words - I have not translated this poem (Proverbs 31) yet. It is the only acrostic left for me to grind my mind on to try and imitate it in English. But some Hebrew words just won't fit into one English gloss. chayil (חַ֣יִל) occurs 3 times in Ruth. 

The first time is in Ruth 2:1 and is stated of Boaz אִ֚ישׁ גִּבּ֣וֹר חַ֔יִל a person of valor and ability is how I glossed it. I have made very careful choices with help from computer programs that tell me when I have overlapped the English with multiple Hebrew roots. 

This isn't the way language actually works for lots of reasons, but it is a way to puzzle out the ancient patterns in a language no longer changing through daily usage. So I chose valour (Canadian eh) and all the other related valiant, prevail etc for the verbs and nouns related to GBR גבר - that means I cannot chose that gloss for XHL חיל. Nonetheless, chayil has lots of glosses associated with it. 

In its second use in her well-noted place about Ruth, Boaz notes that all my people of the gate know that you are a woman of ability. I can use the same gloss here for the sense. In the third use we are after the scene at the gate (Ruth 4.11) and here the assembly at the gate is blessing Boaz that Ruth may be as those (Leah and Rachel) who built the house of Israel (it is not just men who build houses) and they command Boaz to make chayil. I have rendered this (translation is like a meat packing operation) as you make wealth in Ephratha. 

Altogether so far (1/3 through the Hebrew bible) several words are too hard to fit into one English gloss and XYL is one of them: force, wealth, ability, weal, bulwark and words related to these like reinforce, enforcement, - some of which will survive the critical (computer software driven) process of the next 3 (or more) years and some of which might not. 

Isn't it odd how a gloss would change what we perceive? So the KJV has these three: wealth for Boaz, virtuous for Ruth, and worthily for chapter 4, (I have not used any glosses related to worth yet in 100,000 words). Wealth is like one of my choices but I would not place it here. Whatever qualifies Ruth must qualify Boaz and vice versa. Because the context and sense is the same. The blessing is a little different - given the parallel of house building, the blessing to Ruth is clearly apt since she undoes the curse against Moab and her house is still celebrated over two millennia later. 

This morning's communion with dog and pelican and goose

A few photos of the Regina waterways near the University Library.

Pelicans & geese - see link for detail

What is this?

This is Callie

Flowers at Government House

Why foxglove? a weed, a medicine, or just beautiful. 

"what the sly fox has to do with the foxglove remains a mystery"

I enjoy watching these tall flowers grow. One in my garden is stunted this year because the official keeper of the gardens does not like them. I transplanted a few of these weeds on a hot day - not a good idea. This one is at Government House, Victoria BC.

Fox is a special word in the Scriptures, as I have pointed out before. The word lies in the domain of Love and Promise. Hah - didn't know that, did you? Here are the instances I have read so far:

עַ֤ל הַר־צִיּוֹן֙ שֶׁשָּׁמֵ֔ם שׁוּעָלִ֖ים הִלְּכוּ־בֽוֹ	Lamentations 5.18	On the hill of Zion is desolation. Foxes walk on it.
יַגִּירֻ֥הוּ עַל־יְדֵי־חָ֑רֶב מְנָ֖ת שֻׁעָלִ֣ים יִהְיֽוּ	Psalms 63.11	They will be spilled by the hand of a sword, a portion of foxes they will be.
אֶֽחֱזוּ־לָ֙נוּ֙ שֽׁוּעָלִ֔ים שֽׁוּעָלִ֥ים קְטַנִּ֖ים מְחַבְּלִ֣ים כְּרָמִ֑ים וּכְרָמֵ֖ינוּ סְמָדַֽר	Song 2.15	Catch and hold fast for us, foxes; wee foxes inflicting pain on vineyards. But our vineyards are budding tenderly.

What is the portion of foxes? What have foxes to do with the Song? 

The vineyard in the Song is the place where the lovers live and work. One may be forced to keep the vineyards of others and not able to keep one’s own (Song 1:6). The Beloved is like a vineyard (Song 1:14). The foxes spoil the vineyard, the place of love (Song 7:12). Spoil has also the sense of ownership as if the vineyards were taken in pledge. One may have many such vineyards but in the end it is My vineyard that is mine is facing me. (Song 8:11,12) Vineyard is a frame for the whole poem. How then will I tend it? Psalm 63 gives us an answer to that question. From the diligence of the seeking early to the recognition of foxes.

While the enemies of Israel are round about, and can be interpreted as foxes, the troubles of a life are closer than the ancient geography of the hill of Zion. In the Song, the foxes (shu`alim) occur twice in one verse and the Shulamite twice in one verse. This too can be seen as a frame for the poem around the word of peace (shalom). The beloved herself must learn to care for her own vineyard and must not be like a fox.

The fox occurs at the end of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The land is waste, the temple destroyed. The earth is scorched. Are we, beloved, learning anything?

Stopping to take a picture of the smell of roses

I was downtown on my bike to print some music and as I came up Rockland, I veered into Government House and cycled past the rose garden without stopping. Then I thought - how can you do that? You've never taken that viewpoint before - so I went back to take the picture of the smell that the sea breeze was blowing to the main entrance.

Government house Rose garden from the main entrance

The structure of a jellyfish

Imaged only. I make no attempt to describe this.

Sea life at low tide

Inspired by Karen Traphagen, here are some pictures from the North-West coast. No starfish or tritons and if you can identify things better that I can, please comment.

A visit to the Victoria International Kite Festival

Still picture on Facebook already - here's a video of the kite flyers. And here's a panorama from across Ross Bay to Clover Point where the festival is. Continues tomorrow.

Clover point from the other side of Ross Bay

Walking up Mt Doug

A few shots with my new camera (Panasonic DMC ZS40). I get no kudos for the link, but I was curious about the reviews. It's a pocket size 30x zoom 18 MP. It has some manual operation but I usually just point and shoot. The Intelligent Auto setting does everything from ordinary light to backlight to night shots. It has a number of preset conditions, like sepia and black and white, somewhat funky. Here are a few useful capacities.

Here's an overall panorama of the view that we climbed to on Mt Doug using the Blenkinsop trail. Very easy to do this - all preprogrammed, just select panorama and pretend you are doing a movie.

I'm standing at the same place and this is done with the 30X optical zoom - but not the extended digital zoom - not bad detail of the cruise ship at Ogden point taken from about 7 km away.

Here's a closeup of some of the fauna - what is this? I could have taken this one with the Blackberry phone, but not the above two. And a little tripod would be helpful at times when at full zoom..

Green shadow-man

Some spring blossoms to cheer you up

We decided that telephones are not the best camera for a serious trip. And we have plans to be in the Galapagos in the late Fall so we bought a camera - not too hard to use but with full manual control as well. So besides learning to snorkel, I will review my old photo skills as well.

Google+ does not like blogger any more. I have had to construct this slide show from scratch - but it works. The Hebrew under the peacock is from Genesis: and all the winged fowl of its species

New York, New York

We're back from New York. Here are some pictures from around the city.


The Winnipeg Symphony played at Carnegie Hall - a very fine performance - unique music, all Canadian.
R. MURRAY SCHAFER Symphony No. 1 (US Premiere)
DEREK CHARKE 13 Inuit Throat Song Games (US Premiere), Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer
VINCENT HO The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (US Premiere) Dame Evelyn Glennie, Percussion

We finished our 7-days there hearing a graduation recital from Rose Francesca dePasquale, accompanied by John Root, a student of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at Morse Hall in the Julliard School, just hours before we had to be at the airport.

Sunrise in the west

from the point of view of a tree in the western part of the garden in the Pacific North West - yes the sun rises in the west too :)

On death

I think I am going to learn to sing again. In the face of all the death I have been reminded of these first 2 weeks of the year, I think a little effort - physical effort - should be put into singing. So today (now yesterday) I have had to learn this for evensong in a few hours.


 Evensong is now over but remember daffodils by Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
  You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
  Has not attain'd his noon.
   Stay, stay,
 Until the hasting day
  Has run
   But to the even-song;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
 We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
 As you, or anything.
  We die
 As your hours do, and dry
  Away,
   Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

Flowers die too, haste away, sometimes too soon, and get tangled with weeds. In the midst of prodigious even wanton prodigality,  room - no room - too much room, from desert to crowded gardens. Here is a performance of the Britten flower songs, Daffodils leading...

Trees - the broken branch

I have been studying trees - visually - not scholarly -  I guess they qualify as flowers too - part of that visual Poetry of Christ that has taken a back seat in my posting over the last year.  This tree clapped hands a little more than its branch could manage. In its decay it is still beauty.

Respite

A link to some pictures we took while 'shopping'

Canada Day 2011

A walk at the Lieutenant Governor's house - a frequent stroll for us since we live right around the corner from it.

The spice garden and sundial

The rose gardens are just coming out full.

Our own roses on the porch have their charm

We ended up at the fireworks - but missed most of them.

Golden grass - a beautiful withering

It was a golden grass kind of day on Saturday - a nice poetry. We walked through the park at cattle point with its curious lupin seed pods.

ending up at the oldest residence in Victoria, Tod house.

Father's day ending

My eldest son, Jeremy, prepared the meal today. Then we took a short walk among the wild flowers around Gonzales weather station

Need some flowers

We took a brief walk today through our own garden and around the corner to the Lieutenant Governor's garden.