senryu – why say? = pourquoi dire ?

why say?
you are in our prayers – say
we are the light

pourquoi dire ?
vous êtes dans nos prières - dites
nous sommes la lumière

Richard Vallance

Bahá'í logo for world religions = le logo des Bahá'í des religions du monde

To my mind, there are really no religions, there is only God and ourselves. So we do not need to pray, because we are in essence prayer. To love God and to love one another is the only thing that matters.

Selon moi, il n'y a pas de religions, il y a seulement Dieu et nous-mêmes. Donc nous n'avons pas besoin de prier, parce que nous sommes essentiellement la prière. La seule chose qui compte, c'est d'aimer Dieu et les uns les autres.  

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You may have fallen prey

You may have fallen prey




for Willem Tensen

You may have fallen prey to such a fate
as only we imagine and cannot share;
we know your soul shall never abrogate 
her duty to her God in every prayer
you offer up to Him alone with all
you fairest friends and closest kin alike
according to your heart's most ardent call
to rally yourself against this dire strike,
this awful blow to you and yours you know
you never deserved in your faintest dreams,
this unexpected, all too nasty blow
which only love, yours and our Lord's redeems.
Your injury is also ours to bear
if only we'll bear the cross you lightly share.

Richard Vallance

October 2 2019

photo public domain

senryu – my wee kitty prays = mon chaton prie

senryu – my wee kitty prays = mon chaton prie

my wee kitty prays,
you know not what you do – 
only humans sin



mon chaton prie,
tu ne sais pas ce que tu fais –
pécher, c’est humain

Richard Vallance

summer haiku d’été – veiled by mist = dans le brouillard

summer haiku d’été – veiled by mist = dans le brouillard

veiled by mist
in his lotus garden
the praying Buddha



dans le brouillard
dans son jardin aux lotus
le Bouddha qui prie

Richard Vallance

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque



In Istanbul, the Blue Mosque, Allah’s shrine
of Holy shrines, invokes his Love for all
who visit her but once, His holy sign
for every faith, to those who heed the call;
Yes, raise your eyes on high, and view her vaults
and Carian columns so fairly nuanced
you’ll fall on your knees... where?... in Allah’s sight,
whose Mind is in our humblest minds ensconced.
And if you sense that Jesus too is there
and Moses from the Mountain has returned,
how can the world ignore your every prayer,
how can we fail if love is never spurned?  
    Religions of the world must reunite
    since this, our holy shrine, reveals the Light.


Richard Vallance
February 28 2019

I was profoundly blessed when I had the great good fortune to visit the Blue Mosque, Istanbul, on April 29 2012. Never in my entire life have I ever ever seen a religious shrine as lovely as this. I was utterly overwhelmed by its sheer glory. If you ever get the chance to visit the Blue Mosque, you should not pass it by. You will be so deeply moved and graced by it that you will never regret for an instant your having visited it.

The photo you see here is my own.

J’ai été profondément béni d’avoir la chance inestimable de visiter la Mosquée Bleue à Istanbul le 29 avril 2012. Je n’ai jamais vu de la vie un lieu saint aussi beau que celui-ci.  J’ai été complètement bouleversé par sa gloire imposante. Si vous aurez jamais l’occasion de la visiter, vous ne devez pas la laisser s’échapper. Vous serez tellement ému que vous ne regretterez jamais un seul instant une telle visite.

C’est ma propre photo que vous voyez ici.

 

winter haiku – all our lakes frozen = tous nos lacs gelés

winter haiku – all our lakes frozen = tous nos lacs gelés

our lakes all icebound
all our loons too far away –
pray they may return



tous nos lacs gelés
tous nos huards trop lointains –
priez qu’ils reviennent

Richard Vallance

summer haiku in Minoan Linear A, ancient Greek, English and French

summer haiku in Minoan Linear A, ancient Greek, English and French: 



Originally written in 2017, and reposted here... 

winter haiku d’hiver – our family’s fête = dîner de famille

winter haiku d’hiver – our family’s fête = dîner de famille

our family’s fête,
our menorah, our blessing  –
Yahweh is silence



dîner de famille,
la menorah nous bénit  –
Yavé est silence

Richard Vallance

Linear A haiku: a prayer for the hearth shared with an immortal … wine vowed to Mother Earth

Linear A haiku: a prayer for the hearth shared with an immortal ... wine vowed to Mother Earth:

CRITICAL POST! The 4 major tenses of the derived (D) optative mood of thematic verbs in Mycenaean Linear B

CRITICAL POST! The 4 major tenses of the derived (D) optative mood of thematic verbs in Mycenaean Linear B:

Here is the paradigm of the 4 major tenses of the optative mood in Mycenaean Linear B, based on the derived (D) template verb, naie (ancient Greek, naiein) = to dwell in, inhabit:



Note that we have provided two examples of derivative (D) sentences in this table of the paradigms for the 4 tenses of the optative mood in Mycenaean Linear B and ancient Greek in order to facilitate a better understanding of its functionality.

As can be seen from the table above, there are only 4 primary tenses for the optative mood of thematic (and indeed for athematic) verbs in Mycenaean Linear B, as well as in ancient Greek. These are:

the optative present
the optative future
the optative aorist (or simple past)
the optative perfect

There is no optative imperfect. It is a contradiction in terms. How is it possible that something was in fact happening, kept on happening or used to happen, when it is readily apparent that the optative mood always runs contrary to reality. The optative mood only and always refers to potentialities or possibilities, never to actual situations, which of course strictly call for the indicative mood. 

The optative mood has no equivalent whatsoever in any modern Centum or Occidental language, including modern Greek. It lapsed out of use before the advent of modern Greek. The optative mood sometimes plays a similar role to the subjunctive mood in ancient Greek, but by no means always. As a matter of course, we shall not be deriving a table of the tenses of the subjunctive mood in Mycenaean Linear B, for two conclusive reasons:
1. The subjunctive mood occurs nowhere on any Linear B tablets, i.e. it is not attested, or so it would seem so... because...
2. The subjunctive mood is virtually indistinguishable from the active in Mycenaean Linear B, whether or not we are dealing with thematic or athematic verbs, for the simple reason that Mycenaean Linear B cannot distinguish between short and long vowels. In other words, while ancient Greek allows for the subjunctive mood, which calls for the lengthening of the vowel in any person of the present tense, this is impossible in Mycenaean Linear B.

So there would simply be no point in attempting to reconstruct a mood which could not even be observed on Mycenaean Linear B tablets, even it were present. But it never is to be found on any extant tablet, i.e. it is nowhere attested (A), because Mycenaean Linear B tablets almost exclusively deal with inventories, which are by nature factual, thereby automatically calling for the indicative, and precluding the subjunctive.

It may seem counter-intuitive to find the optative on at least one Linear B tablet, but there is a tenable explanation for this phenomenon. Since the tablet in question deals with religious matters, it makes sense for the optative to be present. For instance, it is possible to say in Mycenaean Linear B,

May we all worship the Goddess of the Winds.
-or-
If only they believed in the gods!

These sentences make perfect sense in Mycenaean Greek.

But this still leaves us with the burning question, what on earth is the optative mood?

This is no easy question to answer. But I shall do my level best. To begin with, it is highly expedient to consult the Wikipedia article on the optative mood in ancient Greek:



since doing so will expedite your understanding of the functions of the optative. Essentially, these are as follows:

1. to express a wish on behalf of the welfare of someone, e.g.:

May you be happy.
May you live long and be prosperous.

2. to express the wish or hope,... if only (which is contrary to reality, as it never happened anyway, no matter how much or how dearly one might have wished it had happened), e.g.:

If only the Mycenaeans had not conquered Knossos.
If only Donald Trump had not won the U.S. Election! (Fat chance of that!)

3. The potential optative expresses something that would or could happen in a hypothetical situation in the future, e.g.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the fortress of Mycenae were to fall in the next few years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Donald Trump were impeached. (Good luck for that one!)

4. Potential in the aorist or the past tense, e.g.     

The king of Knossos fled the city for fear that he might be caught and imprisoned.

5. For purpose clauses in past time, the optative can follow the conjunction so that:

The king has brought us all together so that we might discuss the situation regarding the possibility of an outbreak of war.

6. After verbs expressing fear: 

I was afraid that he had gone out of his mind.

7. for formal benedictions or prayers (primarily in the New Testament), e.g.:

May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
May the Lord grant you mercy.

There are even more uses of the optative, but I do not wish to belabour the point. Suffice it to say, this mood is extremely flexible in ancient Greek. It always references actions or situations contrary to reality. It is often quite difficult for us in this present day and age to really get a grip on the various functionalities of the optative tense in ancient Greek, but get a grip we must if we are ever to really, clearly grasp what ancient Greek sentences relying on the optative actually mean, once we have embarked on that most challenging of journeys, to learn ancient Greek, to easy matter, let me tell you from personal experience.

The famous Serenity Prayer!

The famous Serenity Prayer!

 

 

Orlando, Florida, 12062016, worst massacre in U.S. History!

Orlando, Florida, 12062016, worst massacre in U.S. History!




I woke up this morning to see on TV that, once again, another horrific massacre has occurred in the U.S. In a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, just this past night, 50 people were brutally massacred, and 53 more injured, some critically or seriously. This time it was a Muslim gunman with Isis sympathies. That is frightening in itself. France, Brussels, Spain, the U.K., the U.S.A., over and over and over again. Will this ever end? The answer is a flat out NO. Violent religious fundamentalists have always existed throughout history. In the USA, there was the disgusting Klu Klux Klan in the mid-twentieth century. Now it is Muslim extremists all over the world. But even worse is the fact that in the USA, regardless of a shooter’s motive, religious, hateful or otherwise, it is far too easy for anyone in the USA to obtain guns and deadly assault weapons, and that is the prime reason why such violence will NEVER end there. If anyone thinks that gun control laws, even the weakest, will ever come into effect in that country, he or she is delusional. It will NEVER happen, any more than the vicious terrorism will ever end in the Middle East. God save our souls from ourselves.