Right side up or upside down the sky falls into the ditch. The cabman’s gatehouse holds 7 people, 8 if the door is left ajar. The day before the Squaring of the Cross the gatehouse is stacked three-high with congregants. A woman rebukes a sickly man for taking up more room than his share, expressing her displeasure to a cashier who says she has come to rejoice in los Féasta a Chaitheamh Gabhaireoil, the rebuking woman laughing as she tells her she has come on the wrong day; los Féasta a Chaitheamh Gabhaireoil falls on a Wednesday, not the day before winter solstice, which day it is today. A sign over the door to the cabman’s gatehouse reads,
Now to the Brocken the witches ride;
The stubble is gold and the corn is green;
Not sure what it means, and thinking that it may be a fraction of a larger whole, the rebuking woman says to the cashier ‘only God knows, and even He has His bad days’. To which the cashier rejoins ‘how splendid life would be to have but one bad day’. ‘splendid indeed’ says the scolding woman ‘now get out of my way you filthy cur!’
And then: “Man was entering under false pretenses the sphere of incredible facilities, acquired too cheaply, below cost price, almost for nothing, and the disproportion between outlay and gain, the obvious fraud on nature, the excessive payment for a trick of genius, had to be offset by self-parody”. (Bruno Schulz, Street of Crocodiles). To which the scolding woman replies ‘a fraud on nature… a trick of genius, can’t you see?’
There is the carnival crew to be seen,
And Squire Urianus will come to preside.
So over the valleys our company floats,
With witches a-farting on stinking old goats.
(Von Goethe, Faust)
Now to the Brocken the witches ride;
The stubble is gold and the corn is green;
Not sure what it means, and thinking that it may be a fraction of a larger whole, the rebuking woman says to the cashier ‘only God knows, and even He has His bad days’. To which the cashier rejoins ‘how splendid life would be to have but one bad day’. ‘splendid indeed’ says the scolding woman ‘now get out of my way you filthy cur!’
And then: “Man was entering under false pretenses the sphere of incredible facilities, acquired too cheaply, below cost price, almost for nothing, and the disproportion between outlay and gain, the obvious fraud on nature, the excessive payment for a trick of genius, had to be offset by self-parody”. (Bruno Schulz, Street of Crocodiles). To which the scolding woman replies ‘a fraud on nature… a trick of genius, can’t you see?’
There is the carnival crew to be seen,
And Squire Urianus will come to preside.
So over the valleys our company floats,
With witches a-farting on stinking old goats.
(Von Goethe, Faust)
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