Descartes

[PrinceMyshkin]

Descartes had good logical reason
to know that he was not W.A. Mozart
nor, if official documentation was to be trusted,
any other citizen of Vienna
or of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
nor was he German, Estonian, or
one of those who were reputed to live
in ice houses in l’Amérique du Nord.

He knew, furthermore, that he was not
Blaise Pascal, whom he had seen
just the other night at l’Auberge Notre Dame
gorging on his beloved choucroute garnie.

I imagine I am thinking
he wrote, but crossed it out.
I think I am a gerbil...
I think I am le roi soleil...

How busy he was!
How busy I - Eureka!

Je m’occupe, donc je suis.*

______________
(I am busy, therefore I am.)*

[Sampson]

Haha! Fantastic piece, even if many of the references are a mystery to me. The poem feels wonderfully rich, very European. The imagery evokes a sense of old school vibrancy...

[blank|verse]

"The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room."

Pascal, Pensees, 136.

I think I railed elsewhere about modern society's work martyrs. I'm an idler at heart and always will be; even when I'm at work.

This is nicely expressed and infused with the right amount of well-worn erudition.

[Bar22do]

Descartes had good logical reason
to know that he was not W.A. Mozart
nor, if official documentation was to be trusted,
any other citizen of Vienna
or of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
nor was he German, Estonian, or
one of those who were reputed to live
in ice houses in l’Amérique du Nord.

He knew, furthermore, that he was not
Blaise Pascal, whom he had seen
just the other night at l’Auberge Notre Dame
gorging on his beloved choucroute garnie.

I imagine I am thinking
he wrote, but crossed it out.
I think I am a gerbil...
I think I am le roi soleil...

How busy he was!
How busy I - Eureka!

Je m’occupe, donc je suis.*

______________
(I am busy, therefore I am.)*

I see, by way of elimination, the conclusion is he is a gerbil, perhaps spinning the little wheel all day long to somehow digest his indigestible "choucroute garnie"... hmm, I'm doubtful this will help, for he seems to be thought martyr (to paraphrase blnk) - your poem does express it skillfully. Thanks for sharing.

oh, and just one detail: I think that to render the irony of the French "je m'occupe..." you would rather want to translate it: "I busy myself" (or "I rearrange the cupboard"), that is if you wish it to sound somewhat ironic.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I see, by way of elimination, the conclusion is he is a gerbil, perhaps spinning the little wheel all day long to somehow digest his indigestible "choucroute garnie"... hmm, I'm doubtful this will help, for he seems to be thought martyr (to paraphrase blnk) - your poem does express it skillfully. Thanks for sharing.

oh, and just one detail: I think that to render the irony of the French "je m'occupe..." you would rather want to translate it: "I busy myself" (or "I rearrange the cupboard"), that is if you wish it to sound somewhat ironic.

Thanks for proposing the altered translation but of course I wanted something as close to the succinct "I think," but "I rearrange the cupboard" would have been a delightful alternative..

[MorpheusSandman]

"le roi soleil" is "Sun king" if my French isn't too terrible... Anyways, I really liked this piece though I'm not quite sure how the first two, lengthy (for your standards) stanzas really relate to the final two. I'd be curious to hear more about the irony of that last line and why "rearranging the cupboard" is a suitable translation.

[qimissung]

Yes, me, too, concerning the irony and "rearranging the cupboard." If I understand the poem itself, he is thinking, and in this rendition, his conclusion is that he is busy, therefore he exists.

Unfortunately it makes a very good motto for modern day America. How sad I am that I was born in a country that only grudgingly allows two weeks of vacation a year. I long for Europe and August. (Actually since I'm a teacher, I usually get June and July ).

[PrinceMyshkin]

"le roi soleil" is "Sun king" if my French isn't too terrible... Anyways, I really liked this piece though I'm not quite sure how the first two, lengthy (for your standards) stanzas really relate to the final two. I'd be curious to hear more about the irony of that last line and why "rearranging the cupboard" is a suitable translation.

The lengthiness (long-windedness?) of the first two stanzas were my attempt to parody the step by step, proposition by proposition thinking process as I imagined it in this and other philosophers.

Bar's suggestion of "rearranging the cupboard" is a French idiom for being busy with being busy. The intended irony of what he here comes up with is my notion that so much of what we call "thinking" is just busyness. The busier we are, the equation might go, the more we exist. Or believe that we do.

[Bar22do]

The French idiom is "je m'occupe" ("rearranging the cupboard" an attempt to approximation...)

Here comes the sun king
Here comes the sun king
Everybody's laughing
Everybody's happy

Here comes the sun king

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon
Mondo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
Questo abrigado tanta mucho que canite carousel

John Lennon, of the Beatles

[qimissung]

I'm sorry, Prince, and Bar...what were you saying? I was busy thinking...

[PrinceMyshkin]

The French idiom is "je m'occupe" ("rearranging the cupboard" an attempt to approximation...)

Here comes the sun king
Here comes the sun king
Everybody's laughing
Everybody's happy

Here comes the sun king

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon
Mondo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
Questo abrigado tanta mucho que canite carousel

John Lennon, of the Beatles

Thanks Bar - and John.