Wednesday, June 25, 2008

La bufera infernal.

Here's what Dante had to say about today's weather:
La bufera infernal, che mai non resta,
mena li spirti con la sua rapina;
voltando e percotendo li molesta.

Quando giungon davanti a la ruina,
quivi le strida, il compianto, il lamento;
bestemmian quivi la virtu divina.

Intesi ch'a cosi fatto tormento
enno dannati i peccator carnali,
che la ragion sommettono al talento.

E come li stornei ne portan l'ali
nel freddo tempo, a schiera larga e piena,
cosi quel fiato li spiriti mali

di qua, di la, di giu, di su li mena;
nulla speranza li conforta mai,
non che di posa, ma di minor pena.*
Basically, translated, this means that hell is hot wind which never lets you rest. Which is what it pretty much was, hellish everywhere I went today.

Of course, the way to handle this is not to run around buying paint (Churchill Hotel Lace? Cream Cake? Buttermilk Biscuit? Cosmic Cream? Golden Fleece? Moonshine? Scottish Shortbread? all rejected in favor of Saffron Cream). In the case of hot windy weather, the first best thing to do is to go into your basement with a cool beverage and hole up until it passes. But since my basement is a construction zone, and we needed the paint, out I went.

The second best way to handle hot windy weather, after you've bought your paint, is to go into a lovely establishment for a glass of lavender lemonade, accompanied by a pastry. Thus refreshed, one can venture forth to complete the day's challenges.

The third best way is to go to a movie in the late afternoon with a delightful companion, such as my own, grown sun. Then to Rancherito's for a breakfast burrito for dinner. Delicious. At that point, hellishness will almost certainly have passed, or at least abated, and then:
. . . tanto ch'i' vidi de le cose belle
che porta 'l ciel, per un pertugio tondo.
E quindi uscimmo a reveder le stelle.*

*actual translations: from Canto V, Inferno: "The infernal hurricane that never rests carries along the spirits in its rapine; whirling and smiting it molests them. When they arrive before its rushing blast, here are shrieks, and bewailing, and lamenting; here they blaspheme the power divine. I understood that to such torment are condemned the carnal sinners who subject reason to appetite."

and from Canto XXXIV, also Inferno: "till through a round opening I saw of those beauteous things which heaven bears, and thence we came forth to see again the stars."





3 comments:

  1. Ah the inevitable hot, West Jordan wind. It goes along with the cold, West Jordan wind.

    My Aunt was always jealous of our southern exposure windows at my childhood home, but she knew better, given that is where both winds come from. Her solid brick home was built to have no Southern exposure whatsoever. What she missed in light, was made up for in comfort.

    Remind me to tell you some time of the winter/summer winds whistling through my 19th century bedroom.

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  2. 'Twas hellish yesterday. I hid out at my mom's air conditioned villa (read: apartment) until I could leave the house without my eyes falling out from hot, windy wind.

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  3. But of course, it was a "dry heat" right says he who just walked through jungle humidity!

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