A rainbow is like the Elusive Pimpernel -- they seek it here, they seek it there, they seek it everywhere...
Once, a half century ago, hitchhiking in a remote mountain area of Italy, I found myself riding with a local farm couple through a dramatic rainstorm, and when the skies then cleared to reveal an even more dramatic rainbow, draping the adjacent peaks, I piped up from the rear -- "Arcobaleno!"
The moment of swelling pride in my prowess in Italian was shattered when my auto-stop hosts regarded me quizzically, shrugging as if to indicate their passenger probably suffered from brain damage.
Perhaps, I said to myself, there is a DIFFERENT word for rainbow, in these parts.
(Not only this marvelous poem but, coincidentally, recent events, have put me in mind of that unmistakable feeling that people are being too polite to express the impression that one is a total idiot.)
Thank you, Jonathan and Tom, for arcing your thoughts all the way to this Hellenic worshiper of rainbows, a phenomenon otherwise known as the “uranio tokso” around these parts, meaning “heavenly bow”—definitely a different word reflecting a different cosmos.
A beautiful poem...
ReplyDeleteI must once again echo the fine Chant.
ReplyDeleteA rainbow is like the Elusive Pimpernel -- they seek it here, they seek it there, they seek it everywhere...
Once, a half century ago, hitchhiking in a remote mountain area of Italy, I found myself riding with a local farm couple through a dramatic rainstorm, and when the skies then cleared to reveal an even more dramatic rainbow, draping the adjacent peaks, I piped up from the rear -- "Arcobaleno!"
The moment of swelling pride in my prowess in Italian was shattered when my auto-stop hosts regarded me quizzically, shrugging as if to indicate their passenger probably suffered from brain damage.
Perhaps, I said to myself, there is a DIFFERENT word for rainbow, in these parts.
(Not only this marvelous poem but, coincidentally, recent events, have put me in mind of that unmistakable feeling that people are being too polite to express the impression that one is a total idiot.)
Thank you, Jonathan and Tom, for arcing your thoughts all the way to this Hellenic worshiper of rainbows, a phenomenon otherwise known as the “uranio tokso” around these parts, meaning “heavenly bow”—definitely a different word reflecting a different cosmos.
ReplyDelete