andrewjshields

Friday, February 07, 2025

Malice in Plunderland

As Malice walked through Plunderland, a golf cart pulled to a stop in front of her. The driver, pale and nearly bald, leaned out and introduced himself, “I am Don Q. I’ve had my hair done just for you. Would you like to go for a ride in my limousine?” The man beside him began to introduce himself as Don Q’s squire Vanza, but the man in the back jumped onto Vanza’s lap and shouted, “I am Lone Odor, and my limousine is an electric rocket I will design and build just for you.” Malice sat on Don Q’s lap and cried, “Take me to the White Sea Lake of Plunderland!” (Andrew Shields, #111words, 7 February 2025)

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

Don Q’s vision of monuments and spacious villas

Don Q, Vanza, and Lone Odor stood on a hill and looked at a shoreline in the distance. No buildings stood between them and the sea. Wisps of smoke rose into the sky. “Look at the prospect before us,” said Don Q. “We shall build monuments and spacious villas all along this strip of land, by the grace of my high exploits.” Lone Odor chuckled; Vanza laughed and said, “I can see the tower of your vision reaching to the sky.” – “I will celebrate a popular feast here,” said Don Q, “with great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud to me for my achievements. No one would say no to that.” (Andrew Shields, #111words, 5 February 2025)

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

Vanza and the scent of Don Q

When Vanza became Don Q’s squire, he wondered about the noticeable smell. There was something musty and sweaty about it, with an insufficient touch of cologne. He knew at once he should never mention it to Don Q himself, or even to anyone else. So when Vanza and Don Q saw a frenetic man come down the road and reach out his hand to them, Vanza also said nothing about the potent scent, reminiscent of forests, that mingled with the now familiar aroma of his master. After praising Don Q for his vision and vigor, the man pointed to the windmills and introduced himself, “Lone Odor. Let’s fight the giants together.” (Andrew Shields, #111words, 4 February 2025)

Monday, February 03, 2025

“Mohalaca” in Jorge Luis Borges’s “La busca de Averroes” (1947)

In “La busca de Averroes”, a 1947 story by Jorge Luis Borges, I came across “mohalaca”, which isn’t in the Word Reference bilingual dictionary. So I checked Wikcionario, which had a definition – and its example was the passage from Borges’s story! “Mohalaca” is a Spanish spelling of the Arabic “Mu'allaqat”, “the hanging poems”, which refers to a set of pre-Islamic poems in Arabic that were hung up in the Kaaba in Mecca. Borges, the Argentine writer who was not yet completely blind in 1947, refers to the poem by Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma and its reference to a “blind camel”: “I see death is like the blundering of a blind camel”. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 3 February 2025)

Sunday, February 02, 2025

Mexican President Sheinbaum’s statement in response to accusations by the Trump administration about Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government

Yesterday, a “fact sheet” released by the administration of United States President Donald Trump claimed that “the Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico”. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a statement: “We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Government of Mexico, accusing it of having alliances with criminal organizations.” While I was pleased that I was able to read her statement in Spanish without looking anything up, I was also struck by its tone: this is how politicians worldwide, and especially Democratic Party politicians in the United States, should be talking to the bullies in the Trump administration. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 2 February 2025)


Saturday, February 01, 2025

“Fork it!”: An expression I picked up from “The Good Place"

Yesterday, I was doing something in the kitchen, and something (I don't remember what) slipped out of my hand and spilled onto the counter. "Fork it!" I exclaimed, and was amused as always when I use that expression instead of the other work that starts with F and ends with K. I picked the "fork" version up from the television series "The Good Place" a few years ago: the characters in the "good place" in the afterlife cannot use swear words, so they say "fork" and "shirt" instead. Once, when Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) finds herself outside of "the good place", she is thrilled to be able to cuss properly again. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 1 February 2025)

Friday, January 31, 2025

Lorca to Keats to Lenau to Shields to Lorca: Ruiseñores, nightingales, Nachtigallen

On Tuesday, my Spanish teacher and I discussed the phrase "un anochecer des ruiseñors" from Federico García Lorca's "El poeta dice la verdad." I mentioned John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", of course, but also Nikolaus Lenau, who lived in the United States from 1832 to 1833 and called it "das Land ohne Nachtigallen". That phrase inspired my poem and song "Land without Nightingales". Yesterday, I read of the "zigzag de cantos de ruiseñores" in Lorca's “En el bosque de las toronjas de luna”. In looking for the text, I stumbled on his playlet "El paseo de Buster Keaton", in which a gramophone plays a recording: "En América no hay ruiseñores". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 31 January 2025)


Note: I never did find an online version of Lorca's “En el bosque de las toronjas de luna”.