SRF Heavy Industries

Every year, on this day, around this time of day, I go back and read this again, and all of the little comment threads, so I can remember what happened, how it felt … and how we all knew in advance how the events of the day were going to be used and misused for the next decade.

Some amazing things have happened for me over the past nine years, stuff I would never give back. But looking back over my own timeline, everything up to that date was pretty smooth running and more or less on some sensible track, and everything after that date was all shattered landscapes and tons of wasted effort trying to get back to familiar ground.

There is no familiar ground anymore. Any twinges I’ve been feeling for the American Dream have been phantom pains in an amputated limb.

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The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, Moves on; nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line.
— The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Fitzgerald translation

What we shall be is written, and we are so. Heedless of God or Evil, pen, write on!
— The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, same quatrain, Graves and Ali-Shah translation

Amazing difference, isn’t it?

Fitzgerald tried to preserve the poetry, whereas Graves and Ali-Shah went for literal and idiomatic accuracy. But the point here is that if you only ever saw one version, you’d think it was as accurate as an expert could make it. Seeing two versions in disagreement makes you wonder whether maybe they both missed something….

Pay attention to where your news and gossip comes from.

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