The History of the Christmas Card

Created when a man in England had too little time, the holiday greeting card went on to become a major industry. 

Read more via this link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/

Plaster cast torso of Apollo

 Plaster Cast Torso of Apollo

BY RAINER MARIA RILKE

TRANSLATED BY ALICE FULTON

We can infer his long since looted head

with eyes like curated hail. And that his chest

is still benumbed by empire from above,

as if a morgue, in his glare, now canonized,

fires an arctic solstice. Otherwise, the pocked tits

could not oppress you, and Victory

would not grin through smug ligaments

to reach that sperm hive where priapism lived.

Otherwise, this bust would seem impugned

by the rude graffiti, A R T, that’s spraybombed on it,

and would not slutshame like a frat boy’s tweet:

would not, from every morsel of itself

extrude a tomb: for here there is no flesh

to witness for you. You must be those eyes.

Important note from translator

Clouds

BY RÜŞTÜ ONUR

TRANSLATED BY HÜSEYIN ALHAS & ULAŞ ÖZGÜN

Clouds are on the yardarms,

Clouds are sailful.

Desires are on pomegranate trees

Desires are basketful.

Yellow roses are on their stalks,

Desires are budding

Desires are in my unborn child’s

Joy of spring.

Translated from the Turkish

Getting started with great expectations

It was on this day in 1860 that the first installment of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations was published. Dickens needed money. He had recently purchased a mansion, he had separated from his wife and had to pay her separate living expenses, his children needed allowances, and he had founded a magazine called All the Year Round, and its sales were dropping. So he decided to write a new novel. He published it as a serial in All the Year Round, and by the final installment, it sold more than 100,000 copies. (Source: The Writer’s Almanac) 

Personal Note: Today, looking forward to a pleasant reunion, I will begin rereading Great Expectations.

An important birthday in American literature

Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, is born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. Read more via this link:  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-30/mark-twain-is-born