First Snow

/ 17.11.2007. u 09:29

Komentari: 16
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Gently, the first snows wafting through the Belgrade skies, dispersing themselves randomly over the streets, the cars, the sleeping stray dogs, the three-wheeled gypsy bicycles, blanketing all indiscriminately. The first snows clothe the White City in ceremonial garb, in a winter dress uniform.

Uniform of perception, masking of distinction, the first snows are pristine. From the windows, children crane to see the white fields and folds of their landscape. Eyes widen, mouths slightly open. Sunless light, bright with reflection, traverses the glass pains and draws the first snows across parquets, tables, into our homes – no quarter is untouched, unaffected, unwhitened.

The whitened sepulchral shroud of winter is now laid out over the city. Silence reigns.

Under the first snows, Belgrade is Budapest, Bratislava, Sofia. Under the still clear snows, all disjointed parts integrate. Men in tuxedos, waiters and soldiers in uniform – individual distinctiveness pales and is subsumed in the greater, wider scope of vision.

All white. All vast. All one.

First snows evanescent. The white blanket is frail and erethreal. In moments, old features protrude, reemerge. Patches of brown and black multiply, leaving a tattered sheet of white to connect the shaded places. And the city returns. Harsh voices, metallic sounds, and atramental clouds billow again from snow-cleared cars.

The moment of the first snow blurs and fades into memory within the time it takes to perceive its luminous immensity.

First snow.

Atačmenti

winter.jpg / 25.08 / KB image/pjpeg

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Komentari (16)

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Umetnica 11:27 17.11.2007

Gosh Chris...

This was your James Joice moment... I love musings like that, they go nicely with morning coffee on cold, winter's morning.

Chris Farmer 11:39 17.11.2007

Re: Gosh Chris...

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
- James Joyce
The Dead

stevie 15:03 17.11.2007

Re: Gosh Chris...

- James Joyce
The Dead

my favorite joyce - thank you!

dierre 22:13 17.11.2007

Re: Gosh Chris...

"He bore his chalice safely through a throng of foes."

My favorite Joyce.

Chris Farmer 17:02 18.11.2007

Re: Gosh Chris...

This is also very good, I agree.

"These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires."
Araby

My personal favorite is...

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war..."
Finnegan's Wake

Tamara Ćetković 12:15 17.11.2007

* * * * * *

Igor_Jaramaz 14:54 17.11.2007

Last year

Last year the first snow fell (and melted in a few minutes' time) on November 4th. That was also the last and only time it did so in the White City. I remember having to go to Kopaonik for a week in February to cure my surprisingly of all thing nostalgia for snow which I had grown accustomed to during the course of 17 long Canadian winters.

This time it feels like we might be in for a real winter, so hold on to your b*tts. Besides, slava season has begun, officially announced by battalions of frantic middle-aged shoppers in your local branch of the Miskovic Empire. Thus, this might be a time to experience an old-fashioned Serbian winter.

Jelica Greganović 16:43 17.11.2007

I u Ljubljani

tiho pada sneg, sićušan.

Nietzsches Aprentice 17:11 17.11.2007

Re: Last year

This time it feels like we might be in for a real winter

How fervently I wish this to be true. Sadly, I feel my hopes are in vain, global warming being the nemesis of my dreams of snowy Belgrade winters. I'm not a Holiday Season type of person, if anything, I mislike the whole period somewhat, but snow manages (or, better yet, used to manage) to put me in some sort of serene, even cheerful mood. When I saw the temperature on January 3rd this year, my whole perception of time became distorted. Must I move to Finland now? Who's going to pay for the language classes?

Ana WithAFamilyNameTooHardToPron 12:49 18.11.2007

Re: I u Ljubljani

secam se price moje drugarice o tome kako je njena dvogodisnja cerka bila fascinirana kad je prvi put videla sneg:
"Mama, pada!"
"Sta pada?"
"Malo belo..."

Igor_Jaramaz 01:26 19.11.2007

Re: Last year

Rest assured that Global Warming (climate change) comes with side effects - occasionally and unusually colder and longer winters are one of them.

codex_casti 17:47 17.11.2007

snow in san anselmo..

Snow In San Anselmo - Van Morrison

Snow in san anselmo
The deer cross by the lights
The mission down in old san rafael
A madman looking for a fight
A madman looking for a fight

The massage parlors open
The clientele come and they go
The classic music station
Plays in the background soft and low
Plays in the background soft and low

The silence round the cascades
The ice crisp and clear
The beginning of the opera
Seem to suddenly appear
Seem to suddenly appear

The pancake house is always crowded
Open 24 hours of every day
And if you suffer from insomnia
You can speed your time away
You can speed your time away

Snow in san anselmo
My waitress my waitress my waitress
Said it was coming down
Said it hadnt happened in over 30 years
But it was laying on the ground
But it was laying on the ground

Krugolina Borup 23:44 17.11.2007

?

Don't tell me you people actually like snow??

Ana WithAFamilyNameTooHardToPron 12:47 18.11.2007

Re: ?

I like it as an idea and also through the window. I miss it here. UK would benefit of some ChrisFarmenr's snow.

Krugolina Borup 21:13 18.11.2007

Re: ?

Ana WithAFamilyNameTooHardToPron
I like it as an idea and also through the window. I miss it here. UK would benefit of some ChrisFarmenr's snow.

Oh, the one looked upon through the window is so much better, I agree.

It's the Uk thing, I see. Have a friend from UK who always whined about no snow in UK. Now he's moved to Poland, and is snowed under. Things look significantly less romantic when you have to take a showel into your hands and go out and "socialize" with the white stuff.

))

snezana mihajlovic 14:34 18.11.2007

...

no quarter is untouched, unaffected, unwhitened.

nice

despite the return of the city
the vision is still snowing in my mind
clear
unburdened
it somehow stores a moment into my memory, despite the harsh voices and in spite of all
(but not out of spite)