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Friday, November 19, 2021

Some Poetry from the Mind of Vitasta Raina

I've just read a three-part poem by Vitasta (or is it Raina?), and I feel I've been back to the onset of civilization, thousands of years ago and yet only yesterday, with place names identifying who has been dispossessed over those years, especially, perhaps, over the more recent ones, but I know too little of that history, whether ancient or just yesterday, to understand the references and know what is meant.

But I do have a question to ask about something in these lines, namely, is the word "And" correct:

I met a palmist once, in Varanasi, saffron and divine,
And individual in an individuated street,
A hand without a wrist, a soul without reflection.

Or is this "An" correct:

I met a palmist once, in Varanasi, saffron and divine,
An individual in an individuated street,
A hand without a wrist, a soul without reflection.

Which is correct? I think the latter is correct, the former being a typo, but I could be wrong.

The entire poem - which is excellent, by the way - can be found on pages 284-288 in Carter Kaplan's Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet.
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3 comments:

  1. Carter Kaplan11:13 AM

    It's all in the scan, the repetition of sounds, thus:

    An... individual... in... an... in... dividuated

    And then in the next line: hand...


    Poetry, music... suggestion... reflection... the art of the irrational rationale... Maybe the music of the spheres, come to think of it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Horace Jeffery Hodges3:16 PM

    My text reads "And individual in an individuated street," . . .

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carter Kaplan11:35 AM

    The book has been updated. "And" is now "An". (Or it will be in about 24 hours.)

    ReplyDelete

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