recitando/reciclando

Jeanne était au pain sec dans le cabinet noir,
Pour un crime quelconque, et, manquant au devoir,
J'allai voir la proscrite en pleine forfaiture,
Et lui glissai dans l'ombre un pot de confiture
Contraire aux lois. Tous ceux sur qui, dans ma cité,
Repose le salut de la société,
S'indignèrent, et Jeanne a dit d'une voix douce:
- Je ne toucherai plus mon nez avec mon pouce;
Je ne me ferai plus griffer par le minet.
Mais on s'est récrié: - Cette enfant vous connaît;
Elle sait à quel point vous êtes faible et lâche.
Elle vous voit toujours rire quand on se fâche.
Pas de gouvernement possible. À chaque instant
L'ordre est troublé par vous; le pouvoir se détend;
Plus de règle. L'enfant n'a plus rien qui l'arrête.
Vous démolissez tout. - Et j'ai baissé la tête,
Et j'ai dit: - Je n'ai rien à répondre à cela,
J'ai tort. Oui, c'est avec ces indulgences-là
Qu'on a toujours conduit les peuples à leur perte.
Qu'on me mette au pain sec. - Vous le méritez, certe,
On vous y mettra. - Jeanne alors, dans son coin noir,
M'a dit tout bas, levant ses yeux si beaux à voir,
Pleins de l'autorité des douces créatures:
- Eh bien, moi, je t'irai porter des confitures.

Victor Hugo

electricidade

as pessoas como casas

há pessoas de muita idade cujo desmoronamento final se assemelha ao último desmoronar de monumentos classificados, ao arruinar definitivo de edifícios cujo esplendor e teatralidade marcaram para sempre as diferentes infâncias neles passadas. 

monstra: a noite, de regina pessoa

acontece

que nem os devotos da razão são sempre razoáveis.

for tongxuemen to comment

To express an idea or to name a thing the Chinese uttered a sound in one breath. But they had more ideas than sounds to represent them. It is improbable that there was at any time a special sound for every idea or thing. 

At any rate, when we first meet with the spoken language, one of the characteristics which strikes us is the relative paucity of sounds compared with the ideas to be conveyed. The natural difficulty arising out of the comparatively limited play of the organs of speech in the Chinese race is one cause of this, and we shall note another later on. 

The result is that the same sounds have to do duty not only twice, but thrice or oftener, and each to represent more than one idea. If there are a dozen men and only three names, Tom, Dick, and Harry, the least confusing arrangement is to call four men by each name. But how are we to convey to anyone which of the four Toms, for example, is meant?

Not being able to invent any more names or sounds, the Chinese particularized the idea or thing from others having the same name or sound by adding to that sound a distinguishing intonation. This intonation is known by tone but the Chinese did not at first, nor for a very long time, recognize that he was making these distinctions in this way. Every intoned sound was to him though not in reality, a new monosyllable. Carpenters often use a tool composed of a handle into which differently shaped points are fitted for different kinds of work. The handle was the monosyllable, the points the tones. But where did he get these tones? The answer to this question has proved a stumbling-block to an enormous number of scholars, and for the reason that, as is often the case, the obvious explanation is not the right one. The obvious explanation is that, when two words, through phonetic decay, had become so alike as to be homonyms, a tone was invented to keep the meanings distinct, and that, as the decay went on, more and more tones were required to prevent confusion becoming worse confounded. But that is not what took place. It was the natural development of the tone distinctions through the inability to invent new sounds that led to the carelessness of articulation and the multiplication of what without the tones would be homonyms. 
a continuar (com mais mimos desta vez sobre a escrita por sinogramas)

old mac back

ou maio em março. ou o primeiro gesto. mas sempre o efeito é do tipo "cena fulgor".

sincronicidade ou causalidade?

em entrevista ao timesonline, o padre amorth, exorcista oficial do vaticano (parece haver lá um corpo de seis especialistas nesta área), depois de reafirmar a natureza invisível do diabo, "pure spirit", avisa que ele "can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable". 
(não é que ainda ontem à noite estive a ver uma nova versão da história do soldado na qual o demo aparece, a cantare , a dançar, a tocar (com o violino que rouba ao soldado naturalmente), muito bem disfarçado de velho, primeiro, de velha depois, e até ainda outra vez de comerciante, antes de, no grand final, aparecer em pessoa, isto é, satanás ele próprio?)   

postal para sydney

vinha (de baixo para cima) a pensar que nunca vejo o sinal para castro verde sem pensar no PQz quando reparo que o sinal é, ele próprio cor de verde. muito verde mesmo. entre o verde bandeira e o verde das últimas folhas das amendoeiras. logo me nasce um imenso entusiasmo pela silenciosa mas expressiva homenagem à terra ancestral do meu amigo australiano; entusiasmo que cresce sem parar até se esvair em desilusão e embaraço quando, uns quilómetros à frente, passo pelo sinal para aljustrel.