Log24

A PBS broadcast of Cyrano de Bergerac was shown yesterday nationally and this evening, a day late, by WNED TV, Buffalo.

From the translation by Anthony Burgess:

Cyrano speaks of falling leaves–

They fall well. With a sort of panache.
They plume down in their last
Loveliness, disguising their fear
Of being dried and pounded to ash
To mix with the common dust.
They go in grace, making their fall appear
Like flying.
ROXANE  You’re melancholy today.
CYRANO  Never. I’m not the melancholy sort.
ROXANE  Very well, then. We’ll let
The leaves of the fall fall while you
Turn the leaves of my gazette.
What’s new at court?
CYRANO … There have been some scandals
To do with witches. A bishop went to heaven,
Or so it’s believed: there’s been as yet no report
Of his arrival….”

Later….

CYRANO … See it there, a white plume
Over the battle– A diamond in the ash
Of the ultimate combustion–
My panache.”

A Public Square

In memory of
Richard John Neuhaus,
who died today at 72:

“It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern,
and ceases to be a mere sequence….”

— T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

See also The Folding.