juno

If you haven’t seen it yet, you have a very joyful experience ahead of you. Acute, acerbic, idiosyncratic and enigmatic, Juno – the film and the girl - is all of these and more. This wonderful film made me want to shout “Yes!” for Juno’s awkwardness, her individuality, her oddity. The exception to the rule about most American films – its intelligent, low-key, very funny and moving. It has been labelled an “issue” movie because teen pregnancy is the basis of the story. But that is, I think, a small part of a film which celebrates the weird and simple humanity of a sixteen year old who may be pregnant but is as yet uncorrupted by the world around her. She’s a worldy-wise ingénue, with a profoundly graceful attitude to the many quirks of that strange beast, the human race.

I got doubly lucky when I went to see the film. It was an afternoon showing and the large cinema was almost empty with individuals, couples and small groups scattered sparsely around the auditorium. At the final scene, when Juno and boyfriend are singing their lovely little duet, I glanced down to the front of the cinema and saw a group of about six or seven kids, about thirteen or fourteen years of age, waving their hands above their heads from side to side in unison with the song. It was a truly magical moment. The eternal hope and freedom of youth and the ability of music to engender a sense of joy in the world - all on a wet Friday in Glasgow.

Juno – its beautiful!

Night by Aleksander Blok

Nicht, causey, leerie, pothicar,
Aw where a dreich and donnert licht
Leeve for twinty-five year mair –
Naethin will chynge. Nane taks flicht.

Ay, ye can dee – re-stert it aw,
Aw thing turns roon like a peerie:
Nicht, and the canual’s cauld swaw,
Causey, pothicar and leerie.

Scots glossary

nicht – night
causey – street
leerie – lamp
dreich – dreary
donnert - dull
pothicar – apothecary
swaw – wave

This is a translation into a synthetic Scots by Edwin Morgan. A further translation into Englsih prose might be something like:

Night, street, lamp, apothecary
All with a dreary and dull light.
Live for twenty-five years or more –
Nothing will change, nothing take flight.

Yes, you can die, restart it all,
Everything turning round like a spinning top,
Night, and the canal’s cold wave,
Street, apothecary and lamp.

Aleksander Blok : 20th century Russian Poet

Edwin Morgan : Scottish poet – 1920 - present

Found Stuff

Early Morning Fog

Britten

This CD of choral works by Britten is superb. Naxos may be seen as a "cheap" label, but the singing, the playing and the production here are all wonderful.

in Catterline (for Joan Eardley)

The cottage row sits
squat, snubbing the north east
wind; here is all there
is - the caw of gulls,
long days, low cloud
and the wash of it.
In the fields, time waits;
row of stone, row of barley,
lines that stretch a solstice
to infinity. By low water
your breath is still
and the sweep of waves far out
is rumour of something
breaking; the boom
of surf and bones
that write their names in fathoms.
A living that moved you
to edges and flat landscapes,
your eyes fixed on a movement,
cloud to rainbow, city
to sea. The daub of blue,
yellow, black, a gash
of summer light in that darkness.

The Road To Heaven

A lot of the road to heaven has to be taken at thirty miles an hour.

Evelyn Underhill : The Fruits of the Spirit