Megalithic Poems

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Littlestone L
Littlestone Aug 3, 2008 21:16:23
Replying to gjrk

gjrk wrote:
Is this as far as we have gone; white stone
or a brazen serpent to look upon?
Such a heavy asp to wrap around a staff
or beam; “Mene, mene, tekel, u-pharsin.”
I shall take a great leap in the air and
hold as long as I can and only then.
Let the piper sound my fall. If he will.
Thanks g, nice one.

Is it relevant to ask what the English is for Mene, mene, tekel, u-pharsin - though personally I like the half-locked silence of the unknown - as in one of the first posts on this thread -

Qual e' colui che somniando vede,
che dopo 'l sogno la passione impressa
rimane, e l'altro a la mente non riede,
cotal son io...

Dante, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII

'Like somebody who sees things when he's dreaming
And after the dream lives with the aftermath
Of what he felt, no other trace remaining,

So I live now'...

G gjrk
gjrk Aug 4, 2008 10:09:53
Replying to Littlestone

Thanks LS,

The reference is from the book of Daniel, when Belshazzar’s feast is interrupted by a hand writing four words on the wall (expression: ‘the writing is on the wall‘). After exhausting ‘the exorcists, Chaldaeans, and diviners’, Daniel is sent for to make an interpretation:
“And these are the words of the writing which was inscribed: Mene mene tekel u-pharsin. Here is the interpretation: mene: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; u-pharsin: and your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Literally - numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.

The ‘brazen serpent’ is from Numbers 21:
“Moses therefore pleaded with the Lord for the people; and the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and erect it as a standard, so that anyone who had been bitten could look at it and recover.”

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng59

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng6350


Thanks again, by the way, for your London tips. I would have walked right past that casket if I hadn't been looking for it and it was quite incredible.