"The Ships", compared...

I'm listening to the audio book of Thermopylae, by Paul Cartledge, which early on quotes a line from one C.P. Cavafy, from his prose poem The Ships, as translated by Edmund Keeley:

From Imagination to the Blank Page. A difficult crossing, the waters dangerous. At first sight the distance seems small, yet what a long voyage it is, and how injurious sometimes for the ships that undertake it.

The piece is worth the read, most definitely, if you have any interest in writing.

I must confess that until last night, I had never heard Cavafy's name (and I even missed it in the audio stream - though I caught Keeley's name, which seemed to offer too many spelling alternatives - so I googled the first sentence, which brought me to the Cavafy Archive, which in turn has been suitably bookmarked for future browsing).

What I found particularly interesting was that the site has published three translations of The Ships (Cavafy wrote in Greek). The other two versions of the same paragraph are, by Manuel Savidis:

From Imagination to Paper. It is a rough crossing, and a treacherous sea. The distance seems short at first sight, but how long a voyage this is, and how damaging it often proves to the ships that attempt it.

and, by Walter Kaiser:

From the Imagination to the Paper. The passage is a difficult one; the sea, perilous. At first sight, the distance appears small; and yet, how long the voyage is withal, and how hazardous at times for the ships that undertake it.

The whole thing is delicious.

Cheers...

Saturdaying...

"Saturdaying" turns out to be a word in the OED, and refers to the Soviet субботник (subbotnik), whereby folks were encouraged (and party members were required) to voluntarily donate a Saturday and work for the benefit of the collective.

It's not exactly what I am doing today, but then neither could I describe my present circumstance as engaging in unrestrained license and revelry, i.e., Saturnalia.

Ah, well. Permit me, then, to assign the meaning of "hanging out on Saturday" to the subject of this post.

I woke up relatively late (around 6:30 am) wondering how to deal with the excess ground meat filling that I had prepared for the pelmeni that I made yesterday. The answer was straightforward enough, as I had arranged, last night, to go visit Feht later this afternoon: make more pelmeni (enough for 3-4 people) and take them along.

However, in the middle of this morning's dumpling-making frenzy, I noticed that the weather in the distance gave every indication of imminent snow, which soon confirmed itself with the appearance of drifting flakes in the immediate vicinity of the house.

In the end, I managed to make 2-1/2 quarts of pelmeni, though I doubt I'll be going anywhere today, unless the weather changes real soon.

There is work to do.

Cheers...