November. Here it is, and well on its way, too.
I cannot remember another period of time in my life when I have been so abstracted, so unfocussed, so just not there mentally. Things are coming from too many directions. And my reading has been what you might expect: abstracted as well. Ah, well, this too shall pass.
It’s been a great year, all things considered. A nice balance of (mostly) work, and (too infrequent but most enjoyable) play. But the busy-ness shows no sign of abating any time soon. I’m not even looking forward to snow, because the outside projects are due to continue regardless. Our best friends are our big tarps, covering construction projects in between working bouts.
What have I been reading? Nothing too exciting, mostly re-reads. Mamma, by Diana Tutton of Guard Your Daughters fame. Lafcadio Hearn’s The Romance of the Milky Way, from 1905, “studies and stories” from Japan. A whole string of O. Douglas tales. Reginald Arkell’s Old Herbaceous. Most of Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons, until I misplaced it. Monica Dickens – Joy and Josephine (ho-hum) and The Angel in the Corner (better). Ethel Armitage, and a host of other vintage British garden writers, combining pleasure with work, as I plug away updating our plant nursery website’s pages, in preparation for the too-soon-coming nursery year, which gets underway mid-December with the slowest-to-sprout perennials being optimistically seeded and subjected to their various germination-triggering temperature requirements – long warm, long cool, warm-cool-warm, cold-cool, cold-warm, very hot…
So, instead of a book post, here’s a seasonal poem. And not the one you’re thinking it will be, from that misleading post title.
I’ve been worrying away at Rilke in the original German, keeping a volume of his collected works on my bedside table and wishing I had the self-discipline to actually study the language in an organized manner. Maybe next year!
In a slightly uneven English translation, here is one of my favourites, especially that third stanza. November, indeed.
Autumn Day
Lord, it is time. Let the great summer go,
Cast your long shadow on the sundial,
And over harvest fields let the winds blow.
Command to ripen the final fruits;
Grant them two more burning days,
Bring them to fullness, and press
A last sweetness into the heavy wine.
Who has no house, will not build now.
Who now is alone, will remain alone,
Will wake, read, write long letters,
And will the alleys up and down
Walk restlessly, in wind-blown fallen leaves.
Rainer Maria Rilke, circa 1902
Leaves & Pages 
Nice to hear from you again, but sorry things are so busy. Everything passes, as you say. Love the poem.
I’m still here, in spirit if not otherwise. 🙂 Not quite sure when things will steady and slow down – the forseeable future is rather dauntingly full of “NEED to dos”, which of course are non-negotiable – many “want to dos”, which are the carrot on the end of the stick to keep us marching along!
Oh my word–! And you say your reading is boring? Reading Rilke in his own language would be a dream…Beautiful post, and loved the selection you chose. Is that your own translation? Awesome. Thanks for the lovely post–I understand these absences. I take them all the time. 🙂 Of necessity. But reading and writing is ever present, just not always the follow-up blogging. Blogging is there when you can do it; the rest is living.
Well, not so much boring, perhaps, as non-challenging. Comfort-type reading, domestic tales, and things I already know the end of, as it were. The Rilke – well – it seems I find myself reading poetry in the late autumn every year. It must be the whole winding down of the year feeling, the gentle melancholy all around of the shortening days, the birds migrating south, the breath of snow on the wind – which has one looking inward.
What a lovely poem, and I’m so so impressed that you’re reading Rilke in German. You fancy lady!
I hope things settle down for you a bit soon, especially as we start getting closer to the holidays. (I know I know, Christmas is still so far away, but I am super excited for it, so it FEELS close.)
Not so fancy, really. I grew up with German being spoken all around me, so my casual understanding is quite decent, which makes reading it a bit easier than if I’d not had exposure at all. 🙂 But I would one day like to be more fluent, both conversationally and in reading/writing.
And Christmas – oh, my! – now there’s a daunting thought! Racing towards us – not far away at all! Eek!